DOHUK, Kurdistan Region – Ever since militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) group killed his brother in fighting more than a year ago Wahid Kochli, a major-general with the Kurdistan region’s Peshmerga forces, has captured or killed as many of the militants as he could find. According to his recollection, he has captured 29 militants and taken part in operations in which a total of 154 ISIS recruits have died. “I have counted every ISIS body I have helped to kill,” said the officer, who believes he may have killed more militants in the battlefield perhaps than any other Peshmerga. “But never have I allowed anyone in our troops to execute an ISIS captive, regardless of his mass crimes,” said the commander, who has taken part in numerous operations in the battlefields of Nineveh province. And he has had his share of close calls – the closest during an offensive to push ISIS out of the strategic Mosul dam, some 50 kilometers northwest of the city that remains the militants’ stronghold in Iraq. “We were so close to the Daesh (ISIS) that one militant managed to open the door of my vehicle. I just remember firing my gun and shooting him dead,” Kochli recalled. According to the latest official numbers released by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), since June 2014 when ISIS stormed across Iraq, 1,258 Peshmerga soldiers have been killed, 300 wounded and 62 are missing. Kochli said he has many stories from the frontlines, where he has seen families lose loved ones. “I vividly remember an older woman crying for her fallen son, who had volunteered as a Peshmarga in the beginning of the war,” said Kochli, who has himself been wounded thrice in battles. “The only thing I could tell her was that I would retaliate and punish those who killed her son,” he said, adding that in less than a fortnight after, his forces killed 12 militants on the frontlines. There are no confirmed data about ISIS casualties, since no independent media are allowed in territories controlled by the group, which has in the past published horrific execution scenes of victims including dozens of Peshmarga soldiers. But estimates suggest that thousands of ISIS militants have been killed in both Iraq and Syria in ground and air attacks. According to international monitoring groups, more than 10,000 foreigners have joined the group in both countries as foreign fighters.
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