Peshmerga minister urges Iraq’s PM to ‘directly engage’ on security cooperation in disputed areas

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – In a visit to his forces in the Kurdistan Region’s Garmiyan area on Sunday, the Peshmerga minister called for Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to “directly engage” on a joint operations command between the autonomous Region’s forces and their Iraqi counterparts in disputed territories.

Shorish Ismael’s visit came days after after two Katyusha rockets fell in the Kifri subdistrict in Garmiyan, resulting in the wounding of a civilian. One of the rockets fell near a Peshmerga base in the town. Security forces have opened a probe into the incident but have not released any results.

“I ask Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to directly engage, so both the ministries of Peshmerga and Iraqi army can reach a comprehensive and diverse agreement to form a joint operations command in the disputed territories in order to fill the security vacuum in the area,” a ministry statement quoted Ismael as saying.

The Garmiyan Administration is an unofficial province in the Kurdistan Region that includes the Kalar, Kifri, and Chamchamal districts, in territory disputed between Baghdad and Erbil. Regional Kurdish Peshmerga and Asayish forces are in charge of security in Garmiyan, while national Iraqi forces control the region to its south and west.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) top officials regularly ask for security cooperation in disputed territories as they are, according to the government, exploited by the remnants of the so-called Islamic State group and other outlawed groups. The international coalition against the terror group has called for similar cooperation between the two sides.

Recently KRG and Iraqi government security officials have held talks on a security mechanism to thwart threats in the area. Ismael said there had not yet been an agreement between the two sides.

The Kurdistan Region has recently faced a new security challenge from the disputed territories in the form of rocket and drone attacks by Iran-backed militias based in Iraq.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, following an explosives-laden drone attack on Erbil’s airport on April 14, called for the expulsion of unofficial forces from the Kurdish borders.

The latest attack on the Kurdistan Region's capital is the fourth since January 2020 and the first to use a so-called suicide drone.

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly