ISIS recruitment in Kurdistan all dried up

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The number of Kurdish recruits joining the Islamic State (ISIS) has declined since the militants turned their guns against the Kurdistan Region, according to Peshmerga and religious officials.

“People still join them, but the number has fallen,” said Mohammed Haji Mahmoud, a Kirkuk commander of the Peshmerga frontline. “ISIS does not trust those who join them from Kurdistan.”

The Kurdistan Region used to be fertile recruitment ground for different militant Islamic groups, many fighting Kurdish nemesis Baghdad, Syria or other unwanted regimes in the region.

But that was before ISIS opened a new front with the Iraqi Kurds in early August, its guns getting close to Erbil and forcing US air strikes to beat back. Since then, the Peshmerga have been in the frontline of the international coalition assembled to defeat the jihadi army.

The former media director at the ministry of religious affairs, Mariwan Naqishbandi, said when ISIS attacks were only limited to Syria, a large number of young Kurds joined ISIS, “But as soon as ISIS attacked Peshmerga forces, their number rapidly declined.”

“In the beginning, nearly 200 Kurdish youths joined ISIS, and that number rose to 500. But now, Kurds joining ISIS is a very rare occurrence,” Naqishbandi said,.

“As far as I know, 70 Kurdish members of ISIS have been killed and 50 have returned to Kurdistan.”

Mahmoud, the Peshmerga commander, said that another reason for falling ISIS recruits is that Kurdish “Islamic parties are not encouraging people to go off to jihads as they did before.”

Officials say that, overall, some 300 young Kurds are believed to have joined ISIS.

Some audio messages by ISIS have been in Kurdish, and the chief of the attacks on the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane was reportedly a Kurd from the Garmiyan area. The latest Kurdish ISIS member to be killed was Goran, remembered as a goalkeeper for the local Halabja football team. 

Inside ISIS, Kurdish objectors to the fight against Kurdistan have reportedly been executed. So have informants.

“They inform us about ISIS activities through their Peshmerga friends. When they are found out, they are immediately killed.”

In its latest report, the United Nations estimates the number of ISIS foreign fighters at 15,000 from 80 different countries. 

Abubakir Tamas, former member of the leadership council of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, said that people in Kurdistan no longer join ISIS because of its ideology.

Some officials say that more Kurdish youth are now joining the Peshmerga, or volunteering to fight in Kobane and with their guerrillas, than with ISIS.