Unknown gunmen shoot Peshmerga member in Kirkuk

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – An unidentified armed group on Saturday evening opened fire on a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter in the disputed province of Kirkuk, police said.

“Born in 1997, the Peshmerga member’s name was released as Jegir Sardar Raza. He has been hospitalized in the Kirkuk Hospital and his condition remains unstable,” a colonel with the Kirkuk police told Kurdistan 24 on Sunday morning.

The shooting took place in Kirkuk’s Rahimawa, a predominantly Kurdish neighborhood located in the north of the city.

“The identity of the two gunmen remains unknown,” the police source said.

Raza served as a Peshmerga fighter before the attack and military takeover of Kirkuk and other disputed areas by Iraqi forces and Shia militias in October 2017.

Since the withdrawal of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Kirkuk, the province has been witnessing increased instability, with kidnappings, ambushes, and insurgency attacks taking place in the area, nearly on a daily basis.

Editing by Nadia Riva

(Additional reporting by Soran Kamaran)