Peshmerga demands international support for mine-cleaning

Erbil, Kurdistan Region (K24) - Peshmerga commander, Tariq Ahmad, told K24 on Sunday that they need international organizations' support for defusing the mines planted by the Islamic State (IS) in two Kakai villages in Daquq district. 

Tariq Ahmad said, “getting back to the area is not easy. IS militants have planted thousands of mines, two thousands of which have been defused so far.”

On August 7 Kurdish Peshmerga forces liberated the two Kakai populated villages of Albu Mohammad and Albu Najm in eastern Kirkuk governorate from IS insurgents. 

In spite of Peshmerga’s constant attempt to defuse the planted explosives during the past four months, the villagers have not been able to return to their homes and are still living in Daquq District in northern Iraq. 

Kakai people, also called Yarasan or Ahl-e Haqq, are the followers of a religion mostly belonging to ethnic Goran Kurds who are primarily located in western Iran and eastern Iraq.

Mam Fazil, a resident of the village of Albu Mohammad, told K24, ”I own one thousand hectares of farm, but because of the mines I can’t use them. We are twenty-five families. The jihadists exploded our houses and planted mines throughout our entire village; we ask the Kurdistan Regional Government to, at least, clean our farms from the mines.” 

Another villager told K24, ”It’s been almost two years that we have abandoned our villages. During this time, we have been unemployed. Farming is the only source of our families’ livelihood.”

But Ahmad says they are short-staffed. 

“We cannot promise Kakai people to be able to clean the entire region from the explosives. The way the IS jihadists have planted the mines and the large size of the contaminated area makes it difficult for our forces to remove them all,” Ahmad said.

So far, Peshmerga forces have only been able to clean the main roads to the two villages.

(Soran Kameran from Kirkuk Province contributed to this report)