ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - More than 155 families have returned to the town of Jalawla a year after it was liberated by Kurdish Peshmerga forces, a local official said. The families were allowed to return home after their houses, streets and roads were declared safe by bomb disposal engineers. The town in northern Diyala was taken by Islamic State (ISIS) militants August last year but Kurdish forces regained the town three months later. "After bomb disposal teams cleared the neighborhood of Azadi of landmines and booby traps laid by ISIS during the battle for the city, 155 families managed to retuen to the city," the mayor of Jalawla Yaqub Lihebi told Rudaw. The radical militants had rigged many homes and public places with explosives during their brief control of the town. "We assisted these families to return home by restoring public services to the town's neighborhoods including electricity, water and roads," the mayor added. Previously, 83 families, mostly Arabs had returned to their villages in the outskirts of Jalawla. With ISIS gone from most of Diyala, Peshmerga Brigadier. Najmadeen Omer, said that his forces and the Kurdish security maintain a heavy presence and patrol the area "to protect Jalawla from infiltrating ISIS militants,"
