‘Peshmerga does not prevent IDPs from returning home’

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Kurdistan Region leadership has no intention of preventing the displaced people from returning to the liberated territories in the province of Nineveh, said a senior Peshmerga Commander on Thursday.

Abdulrahim al-Shamari, a member of Nineveh Provincial Council (NPC), told Iraqi local media that Kurdish Peshmerga forces do not allow the displaced people in the Kurdistan Region to return to areas that were liberated by Peshmerga with the support of the international coalition warplanes.

Peshmerga Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Jamal Mohamad told Kurdistan24 that rumors are baseless. 

“We are against such prevention,” Mohamad said. “There are many villages in Rabia areas [west of Mosul] that people have returned to, and no one stopped them them.”

He explained that if there are some villages that people have not returned to, it does not mean that Peshmerga have prevented them.

“Some of the people might have not returned home because they were Da’esh [Islamic State (IS)] affiliate and had hands in the crimes that the group committed. Once Da’esh left the area, they also moved with them,” Mohamad added.

Peshmerga is one of the most efficient ground forces in the fight against jihadists that has over 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) border with IS, and has liberated large swaths of territory from IS since June 2014.

Peshmerga commanders and Kurdish officials have previously stated that Peshmerga protects all people from IS regardless of their ethnic and religious background.

Editing by Ava Homa