ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Friday said the Islamic State (ISIS) has exploited the security vacuum between Iraqi and Kurdish forces as "practical steps" have not been taken for formation of a joint brigades between the two forces in disputed territories following a deadly attack on the Peshmerga fighters.
“Some steps have been taken to form two joint brigades to fill the [security] gap that is being talked about, but the necessary practical steps have not been taken until now,” Barzani told reporters during a visit to Makhmour town, where clashes erupted between ISIS and the Peshmerga overnight.
“We will not wait for anything else, because the safety and defending [our] land and our nation comes above everything else,” he added.
ISIS attacked Liheban and Khidirjija villages in the Qarachogh area late Thursday, killing ten Peshmerga fighters, raising the toll of Kurdish soldiers murdered by the group to 18 since last week.
Three civilians who clashed with the group were also killed.
ISIS seized control of swaths of land in Iraq in 2014. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. It is especially active in parts of northern Iraq that are disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, including in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahaddin, and Makhmour.
Kurdish leaders and officials blamed the deadly ISIS attack on a lack of coordination between them and Iraqi forces in the disputed areas.
The recent attacks indicate that ISIS has exploited the security gap between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces to attack villages and the Kurdish forces, Barzani said.
Steps towards a “more efficient cooperation between the Iraqi army, the Peshmerga and the support of the international coalition to fill the security and military gap” in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, President Nechirvan Barzani said in a statement issued earlier on Friday.
Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani also said that the increase in ISIS attacks is proof that the security vacuum between Iraqi and Kurdish forces needs to be filled.
The Peshmerga ministry announced in July they were working on the formation of two joint brigades of Iraqi and Peshmerga forces to counter remnants of ISIS in the disputed areas, cooperating in order to reduce the threat of the group’s resurgence. But efforts to form the brigades have stalled.
The gap between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces is up to 40 kilometers wide in parts. “ISIS has been able to exploit the lack of coordination between forces to operate in the ungoverned territory,” the Pentagon stated in its latest report on anti-ISIS operations.
On Sunday, ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the Peshmerga in Diyala. Earlier in November, it also claimed responsibility for an attack in late October in which two Peshmerga were killed on the Erbil-Kirkuk border. A few days later, the Peshmerga prevented another attack in the same area.
In its propaganda magazine, ISIS claimed to have conducted 12 attacks in Iraq from November 25 to December 2, killing and injuring 20 people.
