“The speed at which the enemy gave up surprised me”
Not me. Common tactic of theirs is to ‘surrender’ when faced with a certain loss. Then regroup once freed, and fight again.
Hopefully the Kurds understand that they’ll be back fighting any of these people they don’t put down or at least permanently disable. They aren’t the kind to let bygones be bygones.
This is in Iraq. I cannot speak for how it is handled there. They have tried, convicted and executed some of ISIS they captured.
In Syria few were “released” Some of the local conscripts in Tabqa were released. There were few prisoners.
It may be different in the KRG.
ISIS is considered Sunni, Iraq Peshmerga is roughly 75% Sunni and 25% Shia. Not all of the KRG are Muslim. There are Christians, Ezidi and others too. Not sure about composition of those in the Peshmerga.
The Iraq PUK elements (Talabani’s) are much more diverse. They are totally secular on religion, like in Syrian YPG & YPJ.