ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Islamic State (ISIS) militants on Thursday released two people abducted last week in the disputed Makhmour district. Security sources said they were released in exchange for a ransom, but the families deny any money was paid. Another four people are still being held by the group. On Friday, ISIS militants set up a fake checkpoint on the road between Erbil and Makhmour, a town 60 kilometres southwest of the Kurdistan Region capital. At least nine people traveling the route were stopped at the checkpoint and five people disappeared, two Kurds and three Arabs. Another person, an 18-year-old Kurdish shepherd, was also abducted by ISIS this week, according to Abdullah Tahir, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) representative in Makhmour. The militants have also killed an Arab driver and blown up a motorcycle. Two of the hostages were released early Thursday morning. Families of the men told Rudaw they were freed without payment of a ransom, but security sources said $100,000 was handed over. Three people were injured by the militants at the fake checkpoint. “They were wearing military clothes that’s why we pulled up,” one of the injured men, preferring to stay anonymous, told Rudaw on Wednesday, his hand in a cast. “We said salaam u alaikum [peace be upon you]. They answered in Arabic. We knew it was them when they answered in Arabic. They opened our doors and they said get out.” “When they said get out, we hit the gas and fled. Once we did they fired at us… The three of us got injured, but we didn’t pull up until we reached the Asayish checkpoint,” he recounted. A local tribal leader appealed to the government for help. “We urge the state to look into the matter, because the Arab tribes have been harmed. We want the government to make a decision and have a stance, because we have no support or information about the abducted,” Bashar Tabur, son of the head of Tabur tribe, told Rudaw on Wednesday. Makhmour and the nearby Mount Qarachogh are located in an area disputed between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). It has been a safe haven for ISIS sleeper cells because of the security gap between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces, as well as the rugged landscape. “The Iraqi army doesn’t have the ability to protect the area’s security. There are around 100-150 Daesh [ISIS] present on Mount Qarachogh now and they come down for their activities on the Makhmour side. It’s a vast area and there is no force present. Even the forces there don’t have the ability to face them,” the KDP’s Tahir said on Wednesday. ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria increased between April and July as they continue to operate a “low-level” but “well-entrenched” insurgency in rural areas, the Pentagon said in its latest quarterly report on anti-ISIS operations. The militants’ tactics “to conduct hit-and-run and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks; exploit sectarian, political and security gaps; and target vulnerable residents of displaced persons camps for recruitment” remained unchanged. However, “the lethality of ISIS attacks declined, possibly because of constrained resources and inexperienced members,” the report added. ISIS targets civilians and essential infrastructure to show they still exist, but they are not gaining any military advantage, said a Peshmerga commander. “Daesh [ISIS] wants to prove they are continuing and are still here. They want to show off their power to people, like the terrorist activities they hold such as the ones on the electricity towers. It has no military value, but they just want to show they are still present, their organization continues,” Sirwan Barzani, Peshmerga commander on the Makhmour-Gwer front, told Rudaw on Saturday. Militants have attacked dozens of electricity towers this summer, contributing to power outages in southern and central Iraq. In May, the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces opened a joint coordination centre in Makhmour, one of a handful designed to improve collaboration and intelligence sharing in order to bring some security to the disputed areas. Barzani said such efforts are a good development, but he wants it to go further. “We are waiting to establish a joint brigade between the two sides,” he said. “It’s true the two brigades are not a lot in numbers, but we really need their establishment to fill in the security gap between Peshmerga and the Iraqi army. If those two brigades existed, these incidents wouldn’t have happened or they would have been arrested. That’s why those joint forces will be very helpful to eliminate the terrorist acts performed in areas under Iraqi control,” he added. Iraqi and Kurdish forces held a meeting about forming these joint brigades on Thursday. A high delegation from Iraq’s joint operations command visited Erbil and met with Peshmerga forces at the airport. They discussed “forming two joint brigades from the areas of article 140, in the gap that exists between the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces,” Major-General Bakhtyar Mohammed, a member of the Peshmerga Ministry’s reform board, told Rudaw on Thursday. Article 140 of the constitution dictates how to resolve the problem of the disputed areas, but it has never been implemented. Six joint operations rooms have been formed so far in Khanaqin, Kirkuk, Makhmour, and Nineveh, according to Mohammed, as well as in Baghdad and Erbil. “The Peshmerga Ministry and the Iraqi Joint Operations Command agree that a joint force in the disputed areas, or in the areas where there are security gaps, should be filled,” he said, adding they are waiting for finalization of the agreement before any official announcement is made. The final decision may be delayed until after Iraq’s elections in October, he added, but the security sector wants to see the force formed quickly. “We, as the Ministry of Peshmerga, want this joint force to be formed as soon as possible because Daesh [ISIS] is a big threat to both sides,” said Mohammed, and the cooperation will pave the way for “building more trust” and further agreements between Kurdish and Iraqi forces. He added the talks and any collaboration between the two sides are supported by the global coalition against ISIS. Reporting by Khazan Jangiz, Hiwa Husammadin, Farhad Dolamari, Shahyan Tahseen, Hemin Baban Rahim, and Dildar Harki
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