Suspected ISIS attack in Iraq's disputed Khanaqin village leaves 7 dead

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Suspected fighters of the so-called Islamic State late Saturday struck a village in Iraq's disputed Khanaqin district, killing seven individuals, in yet another attack targeting the country's Kakai community.

The terrorist organization has repeatedly carried out attacks against the Kakai minority group. In early May, suspected Islamic State fighters abducted two Kakai farmers, who were harvesting crops in the Mekhas village of Khanaqin district. They were both later found killed near the same area.

Read More: Two abducted Kurdish Kakai farmers found killed in Khanaqin

Khanaqin is among the territories disputed between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal Iraqi government. Similar incidents have occurred in the disputed Kirkuk province, where many Kakais reside.

The Kakais, followers of a syncretic religion that contains elements of Zoroastrianism and Shia Islam, are ethnically Kurdish residing in provinces of Diyala, Nineveh plain, and Kirkuk. An estimated 110,000 and 200,000 live in Iraq according to Minority Rights.

Late Saturday, suspected Islamic State assailants attacked the home of a Kakai in Dara village, leaving two persons dead and two more injured, a security source told Kurdistan 24. Dara immediately neighbors Mekhas, where the May abduction and killing took place.

As Iraqi security forces and Dara residents responded to the initial breakout, four more villagers and one Iraqi officer were killed in the armed engagement that followed, the source added. Five more were reportedly wounded, raising the total casualty count to seven dead and seven wounded.

The repeated assaults come despite reports suggesting that close to two thousand Iraqi forces are stationed in the surrounding area.

"I do not know why we are targeted; are we infidels? what have we done?" asks a Dara resident during a ceremony for their fallen fellow Kakais. "If they want us to leave, we will not leave," he stated when speaking to Kurdistan 24, adding that he feared further escalation and attacks on the minority group.

"When Peshmerga forces were in charge of the area, such a thing never happened," a Kakai villager said. "Around eleven humvees of the Iraqi security forces were on the scene, and they could not even kill a single attacker," he added.

KRG Condemns Attack

On Sunday, the Kurdistan Region Ministry of Peshmerga strongly condemned the "gruesome" attack.

"We demand the Iraqi security forces in charge of the area to protect the lives and properties of the innocent people, regardless of their religious and national differences," as the safety of the area's inhabitants falls on "the forces stationed in the area."

The statement then pointed to the precarity of the situation that has resulted from the absence of the Peshmerga forces in these areas and the "security vacuum" between the Kurdish and Iraqi forces.

The ministry called for the resumption of military cooperation between Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army "as soon as possible."

Top Kurdistan Region officials and Peshmerga commanders have issued repeated warnings to both the Iraqi government and the international community that the Islamic State remains active and capable of reasserting itself and re-emerging in the disputed territories to continue its campaign of violence.

A "security vacuum," as Kurdish officials have described it, has made the disputed areas in Diyala, Salahuddin, and Kirkuk more vulnerable to Islamic State attacks.

Editing by Khrush Najari