The peshmerga, who resisted the might of Saddam Hussein's army in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdish region, now have a new mission: to protect the hard-won autonomy of the region which they have controlled ever since 1991.

Their role is to keep watch over the steady stream of traffic across the bridge at the Ibrahim Khalil border post between southeast Turkey and northern Iraq.

"Despite the recent events, the frontier is open 24 hours a day," said a peshmerga officer, circled by men in camouflage clothing, with red berets, Kalashnikov rifles slung over their shoulders and pistols at their hips.

Up above in a building that marks the entrance to Kurdistan, a flag flutters bearing Iraqi Kurdistan's colours of red, white and green, stamped with a yellow sun.

"Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan," reads a nearby sign. Beyond the bridge, a huge red Turkish flag dominates the skyline.

The peshmerga, with a reputation as fierce mountain warriors, have despite the Kurds' splintered clans and rival factions been remodelled into an auxiliary force of the Kurdish regional government, with Baghdad's blessing.

Today, they comprise an army numbering some 100,000 men, equipped with armoured vehicles.

And the regional government says it is ready to mobilize them in case of any Turkish cross-border incursion against Turkish Kurdish rebel bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), scattered across the mountainous region.

But until the order to mobilize comes, they keep watch on the hundreds of people passing over the bridge and the tanker trucks which make up the relentless flow between Turkey and Zakho, the closest town on the Kurdish side.

"Everything is fine here. Business has to carry on despite everything else," explains a local greengrocer at the border crossing, who has his stall at the side of the dusty road.

Turkish yellow taxis wait for passengers on the other side of the border.

The peshmerga have erected checkpoints at which they search the passing cars and trucks on the road between the Turkish border and the regional capital of Arbil.

Some distance from the Ibrahim Khalil border post stands a Turkish army base in the Bamarni district.

Home to hundreds of Turkish soldiers, it was established 10 years ago under an agreement with Massud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party who has since become president of the northern Kurdish region.

"They have to go," says Nejian, a youth in the village. "We are frightened because if something happens, we will be caught right in the middle."

One of his friends, Fami, adds that each night Turkish artillery bombs the region's mountain villages.

"The villagers are going to have to leave their land and their homes if this continues," warns an old man who has witnessed the waves of exodus that for decades have typified the fate of the Kurdish people.