ARBIL: With militants just 30 minutes drive away, foreign oil workers were flying out of Iraq's Kurdish capital by the hundreds and business was booming in the city's arms market.
Spared a decade of sectarian conflict in the rest of Iraq, Kurds in Arbil were stocking up on weapons on Friday and keeping a wary eye on their Arab neighbours as they faced what a senior official called "an existential threat" from the Islamic State.
"People in Arbil are quitting their jobs and coming to buy weapons so they can go to fight," said Alan, a 35-year-old gun merchant, who worked in a pizza shop during 12 years in the United Kingdom.
He sold 45 guns on Thursday alone, fetching $1,300 for an assault rifle that used to cost $700."Of course people are scared. Is Arbil threatened? Yes, it is in danger."
The Sunni militants rejected by al Qaeda as too extreme have seized tanks, machinegunes and other heavy weapons from Iraqi soldiers who fled their advance through the north by the thousands in June, giving them unprecedented momentum.
The march on Arbil they began on Thursday is the biggest security threat to the city since former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's troops menaced the region. The group is notorious for beheading or shooting anyone who defies them.
"It's not usually like this. People are buying to defend their land and their honour," said 40-year-old arms merchant Sherwan Mohammed Darbandi. "We won't let them come here. They don't have the ability to reach Arbil."
On Thursday, the Sunni militants put their black flag over a checkpoint in the border area near with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, marking a dramatic push that gave them a fifth oilfield, more towns and control over Iraq's biggest dam.
The start of US airstrikes on Islamic State positions on Friday eased nerves but demand for weapons is climbing nonetheless, driving up prices of AK-47 assault rifles even though they cannot do much against the Islamic State's arsenal.
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