Peshmerga ‘double up on security’ after ISIS attacks

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Peshmerga commander told Rudaw on Saturday that they have increased security measures, one day after several policemen in Kirkuk province were killed and wounded in a suspected Islamic State (ISIS) attack. ISIS has carried out several deadly attacks in Iraq so far this year, sparking fears the group is gaining strength. 

“We have doubled up on security checkpoints,” Sirwan Barzani, commander of Peshmerga forces on the Gwer-Makhmour front, told Rudaw’s Sirwan Abbas on Saturday. 

He said the militants are taking advantage of poor weather. “In foggy weather, the fighter jets can’t spot Daesh [ISIS] and target them. That is why they attack during those times.”

On Friday, Iraqi security forces in Daquq district, south of Kirkuk came under attack, resulting in the death and injury of several federal policemen. ISIS “took advantage of the rainy weather to launch an attack” that night, a local security source told Rudaw’s Hiwa Hussamadin.

Security cameras “did not work due to the heavy rain,” the source added. 

On the same day, Iraq’s Security Media cell announced the capture of “six terrorists and seizure of six ISIS hideouts in Kirkuk province,” including Daquq.

Remnants of ISIS have been able to continue conducting attacks despite being territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017, especially in territories disputed between the central government in Baghdad and Erbil, where security is patchy. Kirkuk was under Kurdish control until October 2017, when Iraqi forces retook the disputed territories following the Kurdistan Regional Government’s independence referendum.

On Thursday, ISIS claimed in its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba that it had killed and injured at least 22 people in eight attacks in Iraq from January 28 to February 3.

Deputy Minister of Peshmerga Sarbast Lazgin warned in late January that ISIS was growing in strength and reorganizing in Iraq, particularly in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.

France’s armed forces minister Florence Parly said on January 10 that ISIS has “regained strength” in both Iraq and Syria.