‘Iraqi forces took our relatives to Baghdad:’ families of missing Peshmerga
“I miss my father. I haven’t seen him for a long time. I only see him in my dreams.”
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The families of over 30 Peshmerga prisoners of war, who were liberated and then taken to Baghdad by Iraqi forces, on Monday gathered in Erbil in front of the UN compound, calling on the international community to help collect information on the fate of the Kurdish fighters.
The Peshmerga fighters were captured by the Islamic State (IS) and kept in Mosul for the past few years. Following the liberation of the city, however, they were allegedly transferred to a prison in Baghdad by Iraqi forces, the representative for Missing Peshmerga, Sheikh Irfan Barzinji, told Kurdistan 24.
“We have heard from intelligence sources and eyewitness in Baghdad that the Peshmerga, who were prisoners of Da’esh, were transferred” following the defeat of the jihadist group in Mosul and Hawija, Barzinji said, using pejorative Arabic acronym for IS.
The families called on the UN and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to help them find the missing Peshmerga fighters, whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown since the fight against the jihadist group began in 2014.
“We were sitting home. All of the sudden, my husband received a phone call from our son, a Peshmerga who was fighting Da’esh in southwestern of Kirkuk. He said ‘I am wounded, and we are surrounded by Da’esh,’” the mother of an imprisoned Kurdish fighter told Kurdistan 24.
“I miss my father. I haven’t seen him for a long time. I only see him in my dreams,” a Kurdish child cried while standing next to her mother in front of the UN office.
The Peshmerga Ministry maintains they have no information regarding the whereabouts of the captured Peshmerga fighters. They revealed they would raise the issue with the US-led coalition.
“If there is solid evidence [that the Peshmerga prisoners were taken to Baghdad], we can approach the Federal Government of Iraq through the coalition,” Halgurd Hikmat, the spokesperson for Ministry of Peshmerga, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.
He added that the Ministry would lobby the coalition on this matter should the claims be confirmed. So far, the Iraqi government has made no comments regarding the allegations.
Some 62 Peshmerga were taken captive by the jihadist group since 2014, a high-ranking source within the Peshmerga Ministry told Kurdistan 24. Some were, unfortunately, ‘martyred’ by IS in ‘barbaric ways.’
IS emerged in June 2014 in northern Iraq and occupied Mosul, the second-largest city in the country. The group shortly expanded to other provinces including Nineveh, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Anbar.
In December 2017, the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi declared final victory in the fight against the IS, but Iraq has since suffered a major blast in its capital.
The Peshmerga have been one of the most effective ground troops in the war against the jihadist group. About 1,800 of the Kurdish fighters fell while fighting IS and over 12,000 more were injured, according to the Peshmerga Ministry.
Editing by Nadia Riva