Peshmerga commander says ISIS fight ‘not over’ as attacks continue

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The fight to end the so-called Islamic State is “not over,” a Peshmerga commander told Kurdistan 24 on Friday, two days after a clash broke out between alleged members of the terror group and Kurdish security forces in a contested area between Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The confrontation occurred when Islamic State members reportedly attacked members of the Kurdish security – also known as the Asayish – located in the Kulajo area, southwest of Kifri in Diyala province. Initial reports indicated two Asayish members, a counter-terrorism unit member, and a resident were killed while five others were injured.

The group has not taken responsibility for the attack.

Read More: Four killed in clashes between ISIS, Kurdish security near southern Kifri town

“At this stage, Da’esh [ISIS] does not want to expose itself and make itself a target, but the threat, danger, and the terrorist acts of the organization are higher than before,” Aziz Waisy, a Peshmerga commander, told Kurdistan 24.

He added that the group continues to use the barren lands and valleys that straddle the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk, Salahuddin, and Nineveh as their operational bases and deploy at night to carry out their insurgency-style attacks. These areas have recently been the target of multiple Iraqi forces anti-ISIS campaigns and international coalition air raids.

Those areas are also territories disputed between the KRG and Iraq, which mobilized its forces along with Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias in October 2017 to retake control over parts of them that the Kurdish Peshmerga had controlled since the emergence of the Islamic State in 2014.

Waisy called on the Iraqi government to address the security gaps in cities, towns, and villages in the vicinity of said areas.

In a recent report to the United Nations Security Council, a panel of experts said the chief members of the terrorist organization are regrouping and laying the foundations for an “eventual resurgence in its Iraqi and Syrian heartlands.”

Moreover, the report stated that the group is much further ahead in Iraq. It also claims the Islamic State figurehead, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and much of the group’s leadership are, purportedly at the time the report was being written, based in Iraq.

Senior Kurdish officials have repeatedly stated that the Islamic State’s menace continues to threaten the lives of civilians, especially in areas with weak security.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany