Hawija, 55 kilometres west of Kirkuk, has now been under siege from four sides for over two months, entrapping ISIS in the town.
There are no open travel routes between Hawija and Mosul. However, ISIS in the town was able to obtain food and fuel supplies through business deals with some individual soldiers of the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi, commander of the force said.
“Unfortunately, some undisciplined soldiers in collaboration with some local people had exploited a vacuum to transport food and other essential items on boats across the Tigris River to the east of Shirqat where Hawija, Riaz, and Rashad lie, selling them there for a very high price,” Yazin Mashaan, commander of the Hashd al-Shaabi’s 55th brigade, told Rudaw.
Shirqat is some 50 kilometres northwest of Hawija, on the opposite side of the Tigris River.
Mashaan said that 25 people were arrested in connection with these illicit dealings in one operation alone.
“We confiscated a large amount of sugar, flour, and cooking oil when we arrested them. ISIS had paid them large amounts of money to get these items. These large sums of money had lured local people and some Hashd al-Shaabi fighters to jointly engage in these dealings,” Mashaan detailed.
According to information obtained by Rudaw, two militia fighters from Hashd al-Shaabi’s special operation unit were involved in these business dealings with ISIS. The two have been arrested.
“My soldiers have committed treachery. They should therefore pay a heavy price,” Wahida Mohamed, a Sunni woman commander of Hashd al-Shaabi’s special operation unit, told Rudaw.
She also said that some other soldiers are complicit in this, warning that the business is ongoing and a blind eye has been turned to it.
Living conditions are becoming increasingly difficult in the Hawija region where food prices are high. The cost of leaving is also high – those who want to flee Hawija must pay ISIS or risk taking routes booby-trapped with explosives.
Commander of the Hashd al-Ashayeri militia, Sheikh Wasfi Asi, has based his forces in the Alam area south of Tikrit, 80 kilometres south of Hawija. He helps people fleeing the town.
“People wanting to flee from the ISIS rule in Hawija have to do so secretly if they do not want to pay for their escape. They often become victims of unfamiliar roads planted with bombs,” he said.
For those who have money, “these people have to make a deal with ISIS to ensure a safe escape from the town. ISIS takes $300 from each person, transporting them to their last post using their own vehicles,” Asi detailed. “Many people have reached us using this route.”
Hawija people also flee to the Peshmerga fronts in Maktab Khalid and Kharabarut. They are taken to camps by Peshmerga vehicles after being searched and questioned. Most of them claim that they walked to reach the Peshmerga fronts, and some have been killed or injured by bombs planted on the roads.
Those who have made it to safety tell of a very difficult life under ISIS in Hawija.
“One kilo of sugar costs 70,000 Iraqi Dinars (IQD, about $60), and one case of flour costs 250,000 IQD in Hawija. These food items are very rare there,” said Mahmud Ramazan, an Iraqi citizen who had given his car and his wife’s jewelry to his cousin who is an ISIS militant in return for a safe escape out of ISIS-held territory.
“We lived on the potatoes and the aubergines we harvested from our fields. Medicine is very rare, and it is sold by medical centers. ISIS was regularly taking head-tax from us,” Ramazan said. He is from Rashada, southeast of Hawija, and currently lives in Daquq camp.
