The Israeli commander who taught Kurds to fight with shoes

Wars & Conflicts · Published 16 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: When a Kurdish leader couldn't read a map, an Israeli commander used a pile of shoes to plan a devastating ambush. This was the unorthodox strategy of Tsuri Sagi, a man who bridged two worlds to turn a mountain range into a tactical masterpiece.

Tsuri Sagi was a high-ranking Israeli military officer whose career was defined by unconventional warfare and deep clandestine ties. During the First Iraqi–Kurdish War in the mid-1960s, Sagi acted as a key strategist for the Mossad, working directly with Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani. His most famous tactical feat occurred at the 1966 battle of Mount Handrin. To overcome Barzani's inability to read maps, Sagi arranged a pile of shoes, assigning each one to a specific mountain to visualize the terrain for the Kurdish forces.

The resulting ambush was devastating. Sagi orchestrated a retreat of 1,000 Kurdish fighters into the mountains, where they trapped a 5,000-strong Iraqi 4th Brigade. The engagement resulted in at least 3,000 Iraqi deaths. Sagi’s influence was so profound that Barzani famously referred to him as a son. The relationship was so close that Barzani even gifted Sagi a seven-month-old Syrian brown bear named Shamo, which the Mossad agents eventually bonded with so much they shared their food rations with it.

Sagi’s career was marked by high-stakes complexity. He trained Iranian special forces in sabotage and urban warfare, and later returned to Kurdistan in 1974 posing as a British journalist. There, he taught the Peshmerga anti-tank ambush techniques that repelled four Iraqi attack waves. Despite his successes—including a mastermind role in a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein—Sagi was often sidelined by the Israeli establishment. Historians suggest Israel 'wasted his talent' because he opposed the 1982 Lebanon War, ending his career as a retired brigadier general who remained in secret contact with his Kurdish allies.

His legacy is one of 'brain food' over 'brain rot': a masterclass in psychological communication and terrain-based strategy. By using shoes to explain a map, Sagi demonstrated that the most effective way to lead a revolution is often to find the simplest way to make your allies see the truth.

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