Iraqi and Kurdistan Region leaders Sunday condemned a deadly attack by suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Khanaqin, calling for coordination between the Peshmerga and other Iraqi armed forces in the disputed territory.
Gunmen stormed the village of Dara in Khanaqin near the Iranian border Saturday night, killing six Kakai Kurds and a member of security forces who responded to the firefight, Kadhim Pirouli, a member of a village council in Khanaqin, told Rudaw.
In light of the deadly attack which wounded another five locals, Iraqi President Barham Salih urged for “coordination” between security forces, including the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces, the Shiite-majority Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Iraqi army to “eradicate terror”.
“This criminal group is still posing a giant threat to our country,” said Salih, referring to ISIS.
Since 2014, Kakai Kurds have been targeted by ISIS because of their religious beliefs. Many now live near Kirkuk, Khanaqin, and in the Nineveh Plains. They have fought alongside Kurdish Peshmerga units during the counter-ISIS campaign that began in 2016.
Located northeast of Khanaqin in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province, the area is populated by members of the Kakai minority who are ethnically Kurdish and hold unique spiritual beliefs, with roots that cross over borders that today delineate Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan.
Khanaqin lies in one of the several sparsely-populated areas of Iraq disputed between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. Because the final status of the ethnically diverse and resource-rich areas was never permanently settled, a vacuum of uncertainty has opened up that ISIS has been able to exploit to continue launching attacks.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani echoed the sentiment, saying there has to be “military assistance” between the Iraqi armed forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga to ensure the security of the area.
Barzani called the deployment of the Peshmerga to the region “important,” and encouraged the two sides to “coordinate in order to restore stability to the region and protect the lives and property of the people.”
Since October 2017, Peshmerga forces have withdrawn from the bulk of the disputed areas after the Iraqi launched a major operation to retake the security portfolio of the region weeks after the Kurdistan Region held an independence referendum.
Since then the two military sides have had a rocky relationship and have not come to terms to lay out a mechanism to jointly run the security of the area where ISIS militants are active.
The Kurdistan Region has repeatedly accused Baghdad of unwillingness to reach a security deal with Erbil in order to fill the security void left as a result of their disagreements.
Lahur Sheikh Jangy, co-president of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) also expressed his sorrow over Saturday’s attack condemning “this terrorist assault and other aggressive attacks within the territory of Kurdistan that has led to the disturbance of the lives of the Kurdish people there.”
Hemen Hawrami, deputy speaker of the Kurdistan Region’s parliament says the Kurdish legislature will hold a session in the near future to discuss the security situation of “Kurdistani” areas outside of the KRG administration.
Hemen says Iraqi security forces “carry the responsibility” of protecting Kurdish people in the disputed areas.
“We are calling for a swift solution to the security situation of the Kurdistani areas through joint administration of the region between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. A mechanism should be put in place to deploy Peshmerga forces to this region,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the KRG Ministry of Peshmerga released a statement ascribing Saturday’s attack to ISIS, and calling on the Iraqi Security forces to protect all civilians in the area.
ISIS first swept into Iraq in 2014, capturing cities across northern and central Iraq including Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the capital of Nineveh province. At the height of its power, ISIS controlled a contiguous area equivalent in size to the United Kingdom. During their occupation of Iraq and Syria, ISIS subjected as many ten million people to an extreme and violent interpretation of Islam.
Although Baghdad declared the territorial defeat of the group in Iraq in December 2017, its remnants have since reverted to insurgency tactics; ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, and extorting money from vulnerable rural populations.
