ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Peshmerga forces have asked the Shiite Badr brigade to handover the control of Saadiya in northern Diyala to the Kurds a day after the town was liberated from Islamist militants, a Peshmerga spokesman said.
“There is the Badr brigade in Saadiya now and we need to negotiate with them in order to take the town back from that militia force,” Brigadier Ahmed Latif, Peshmerga spokesperson in the area told Rudaw.
“They [Shiite militia] helped the Peshmerga in taking back the town,” Latif added.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a massive attack on the Islamic State (ISIS) in Jalawla and Saadiya in the early hours of Sunday morning in which 20 Peshmerga fighters were killed and 49 others were wounded.
“Many ISIS militants were killed but most of their bodies are lost under the rubble or drowned in Sirwan River,” said Latif.
Shiite militia leaders claimed to have played a major role in the offensive, but on Monday the Ministry of Peshmerga said that both towns were “liberated only by the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.”
“In Saadiya Iraqi federal troops took part in the offensive, too” Jabar Yawar, Peshmerga ministry chief of staff said in a statement.
The Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite militias have clashed on a few occasions in the past in Tuz Khurmatu and Amerli where militia groups maintain a heavy presence.
Meanwhile, Anwar Hussein, the mayor of Jalawla urged residents of both towns to “not hurry in returning to their homes until all bombs and explosives have been cleared by the special teams.”
