Iraq: A new attack blamed on ISIS claims at least 12 lives
The death toll from an ISIS attack on two villages on the Srkran and Jabal Qarah Dagh borders in the Makhmur district of Iraq’s Kurdistan region has risen to 12.
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IS fighters attacked the village of Khidir Jija the previous night; “Nine Peshmerga, three civilians and five Peshmerga and one civilian were killed, according to the Kurdish Rudaw network“.
Regarding the attack, Najat Khawla, a Peshmerga commander in Erbil, said: “A group consisting of a captain and a major, and (5) Peshmerga fighters were ambushed by ISIS, and they were all killed”.
“Commenting on the attack, the KRG Presidency, his government and the Peshmerga Ministry called for immediate action to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces, in cooperation with the international coalition, and to conduct joint operations in order to curb the escalation of terrorist attacks by the terrorist group, which has once again become a real threat”.
The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Netchirvan Barzani, said in a statement that the three civilians killed were brothers.
The Iraqi army and Peshmerga must take swift action together to put an end to ISIS crimes, he said.
He called for a review of the military situation and for the international coalition to take part in supporting the rapid steps, noting the need to fill areas located between the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces on the borders of Ninive province with the region.
Politically, he called on political parties to put aside their differences, as the unrest would give terrorists a chance to gain control.
An Iraqi Kurdish security source, who preferred anonymity, said: “ISIS is naturally taking advantage of the tenuous and fragile security situation in the Kurdish areas outside the region, exploiting the national and tribal overlap in those areas all the way to the Iraqi-Syrian border, and exploiting this by providing footholds in some of them“.
He adds: “The sorrow and calls for coordination between Baghdad and Erbil is not enough, because after every terrorist attack, we are facing a serious and imminent danger. There are casualties among our forces and innocent civilians, entire towns and villages that have come under ISIS fire, hundreds of kilometers from Ninive to Diyala, and along the lines of contact between the regional government and the Iraqi government“.
Earlier this week, ISIS launched another offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq; Five Peshmerga were killed and four others injured. The pace of ISIS’s terrorist operations has accelerated considerably in recent months, and has gained momentum across Iraq.
