Peshmerga commander warns of ISIS strength following Diyala attack

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Peshmerga commander said on Wednesday that Islamic State (ISIS) has regained strength and is now longer simply reorganizing, less than a day after a Peshmerga fighter was killed in an ISIS attack in Diyala.  

“Daesh [ISIS] is not in the reorganization stage anymore; Daesh is now a force, a force dangerous for the region,” Brigadier General Dler Shko Rashid, commander of the Peshmerga's Brigade 3 in Khanaqin told Rudaw’s Fuad Rahim on Wednesday, saying that militants stationed near Peshmerga fronts in Kifri possess thermal cameras. 

His comments come after two members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al Shaabi) and one Peshmerga fighter died in separate ISIS attacks in Diyala late on Tuesday.

The terror group seized control of swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, but ISIS sleeper cells are particularly active in parts of northern and western Iraq that are disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, including in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahaddin, where they exploit a security vacuum void of both Kurdish and federal Iraqi forces.

President Nechirvan Barzani condemned the Diyala attacks on Wednesday, reiterating the importance of strengthening cooperation between the Peshmerga and Iraqi federal forces in the area.

Rashid “there is hope for coordination” between Peshmerga and Iraqi army, “after all is the solution, this will eventually be the way to restore calm to those areas.”

The width of the security vacuum reaches up to 40km in some areas, according to the commander.

“These gaps change from one area to another, for example from Front Two to some places it’s 30-40 kilometers, ours is 10-15 kilometers,” said Rashid. “Unfortunately, in those places, they [Iraq] don’t let our forces go there, nor can they protect it or be  present there.”

ISIS on May 5 claimed responsibility for an attack on Peshmerga forces that killed three on the Erbil-Kirkuk road.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held a meeting last week with commanders of the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces to discuss better coordination “in areas of joint responsibility,” as well as “security plans to confront and limit security breaches and extend security and stability throughout the country” to counter ISIS movements, according to a statement from his office.