Philippine Embassy in Baghdad Chargé d’Affaires Elmer Cato meets Sirwan Barzani, Kurdish tycoon and Peshmerga commander. Also known as the Black Tiger, Sirwan Barzani led a group of 150 poorly armed Kurdish fighters in frustrating the Islamic State attempt in 2014 to enter Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan Region and home to more than 2,000 Filipino workers.