Nineveh governor calls for end to rocket attacks against Erbil
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Nineveh Governor Najim al-Jibouri on Saturday called for an end to rocket and drone attacks launched from his province by militia groups against the Kurdistan Region capital Erbil.
In a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and commanders of security forces, al-Jibouri criticized the performance of security forces in Nineveh and emphasized that rocket and drone attacks launched from Nineveh against Erbil need to be stopped.
“In this meeting, Governor al-Jibouri and I called for stopping the terrorist groups from attacking Erbil with rockets launched from Nineveh province,” Sherwan Dobardani, a member of the Iraqi parliament, told Kurdistan 24 on Saturday. “Mosul’s situation has been stable during the past two years, and we don’t want it to become destabilized.”
Dobardani revealed that the Nineveh governor and Waad Qado, a Shabak from Mosul and leader of the 30th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as Liwa al-Shabak, confronted each other during the meeting, accusing each other of destabilizing the province.
In the meeting, al-Jibouri accused Qado of being behind the attacks against Erbil. He also demanded that Qado stop disrupting the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their homes in the province.
Qado publicly threatened to remove Jibouri from his position after the meeting, an eyewitness told Kurdistan 24.
Kadhimi visited Nineveh on Saturday and met with the province’s governor and security commanders. They discussed the security situation of the province.
In mid of 2019, the US announced it had sanctioned Qado along with Rayan al-Kildani, head of the PMF’s 50th Brigade.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at the State Department’s 2nd Annual Religious Freedom Ministerial in 2019, linked the two militias to Tehran as he affirmed, “To this day, Iranian-backed militias extort and terrorize the people of the Nineveh Plain, which is still recovering” from “ISIS’s brutal reign.”
“Qado’s Liwa al-Shabak engages in rampant criminal activity; members of the local population allege that the 30th Brigade has been responsible for egregious offenses, including physical intimidation, extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and rape,” the Treasury Department stated in 2019.
During the past few years, Erbil has regularly been attacked by Iran-backed militias based in eastern Nineveh province.