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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An improvised explosive device (IED) targeted Islahi village in Diyala province, killing one civilian and injuring another two, a Peshmerga commander said on Sunday afternoon. He accused the Islamic State (ISIS) of being behind the blast.
“Today at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, an improvised explosive device exploded in Islahi village in Gulala, injuring two people and killing another,” Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Mustafa of the Peshmerga forces intelligence told Rudaw, using an alternative name for Jalawla, in Diyala.
ISIS took control of Jalawla beginning in August 2014, burning down houses of Kurdish and Shiite families. The Peshmerga forces drove out the militants in November 2015.
However, the city and other areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad fell to the Iraqi Army and the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces [PMF] militias, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic, in October 2017 following the Kurdistan Region’s referendum on independence.
Jalawla’s security has been left in the hands of the local police and Hashd forces, who don’t seem to coordinate.
Rudaw reached out to Garmyan police, but they were unavailable to comment on the explosion.
ISIS has been active in disputed areas, benefitting from the gap in security, and have claimed responsibility for a number of crop fires in the area.
A Peshmerga commander warned on Friday of the regrouping of ISIS and the potential for further attacks being carried out in the area.
“ISIS has not really been uprooted. The group has only lost the territory it ruled. It has completely regrouped and is stronger than before,” Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Peshmerga Commander Wasta Rasul told Rudaw Radio.
“ISIS has sleeper cells in Sunni neighborhoods of Kirkuk too. That is why anything is possible to happen to Kirkuk.”
On Saturday night, two PMF members were injured after being attacked by ISIS, Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Mustafa told Rudaw.
However, PMF units have also been accused by locals in Diyala for some of the fires engulfing agricultural fields.
Mahmoud Sangawi, a former Peshmerga commander in Jalawla when the Peshmerga controlled the area, claimed in May that the PMF were committing “Arabization” by burning Kurdish crop fields, forcing them to flee their homes.
“They raid Kurdish homes every night, burn their wheat and barley farms, blow up their cars, and plant bombs in their farms so they flee the place,” Sangawi told Rudaw. “This round of Arabization has started in a different way and with a different strategy. It is the Hashd al-Shaabi who is responsible for this.”
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