Hundreds killed, injured in ISIS attacks in Iraq in one year

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Hundreds of people, including security and military members, were killed and injured in over two hundred Islamic State (ISIS) attacks in areas disputed between Baghdad and Erbil last year, a Peshmerga official told Rudaw on Tuesday.

ISIS launched over 257 offensives, killing 387, and injuring 518 people, including Peshmerga fighters, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Peshmerga Jabar Yawar told Rudaw.

Thirty seven people were kidnapped, he added. 

The terror group seized control of swaths of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017, but has continued to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.

The militants have taken shelter in a security vacuum in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, stretching across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.

Baghdad and Erbil are in protracted talks to form two joint brigades in these areas. 

Yawar noted that “according to the discussions” between the Iraqi and Kurdish forces, the brigades will be formed this month.

A senior Iraqi security official told Rudaw late December that the brigades will be formed “in the first two months of the year.” 

Iraqi and security forces often carry operations to arrest members of the terror group.

A highly sought ISIS member was arrested in Kirkuk last week, two days after three ISIS affiliates were detained near Erbil.  

In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 7 attacks in Iraq from December 30 to January 5, killing and injuring 13 people.