No Kurd from Iraqi Kurdistan joined IS in 2015: KRG official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) - No Kurd has reportedly joined the Islamic State group (IS) in 2015, said Mariwan Naqshbandi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs of KRG.

The number of Kurds from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, fighting for the IS has decreased significantly. Currently, 60 to 80 Kurds are among the IS fighters.

In a telephone interview with K24 English, Mariwan Naqshbandi said that since early 2013 to the end of 2014 about 500 Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan joined the Islamist group. IS has been battling the Kurdish forces in Southern (Iraq) and Western Kurdistan (Syria) also known as Rojava.

He said that 150 of those initially lured by the IS, came back home to Kurdistan, some of whom willingly surrendered themselves to the Kurdish security forces, and at least 90 ex-militants are now imprisoned.
The spokesperson for the religious affairs at KRG said, of almost half a thousand Kurdish IS militants, 260 have been killed in Syria and Iraq, in various battles and by the US-led anti-IS coalition airstrikes.

Mariwan Naqshbandi, who says he has extensively studied Islamist movements over the years, told K24 that an eighty percent of those who have joined IS were people who studied at official and unofficial religious schools in Kurdistan Region and elsewhere in Muslim-majority countries.

Naqshbandi added that the social media networks operated by "very professional staff" play an important role in recruiting members and promoting propaganda for the IS and other jihadist groups. "But, the repeated military setbacks they faced during 2015 busted the myth of Caliphate glory, and now they have much less appeal among potential recruits," he added.