Kurds want Peshmerga, Asayesh return to Khanaqin due to crop burning

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Following a series of recent wheat field fires and a general lack of confidence in Iraqi forces, Kurds in Khanaqin are demanding the return of Peshmerga forces and Kurdish security (Asayesh). Media outlets belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) have claimed some of the incidents. 

Within the span of one week, more than 600 dunams of wheat crop in Khanaqin, Qaratapa, Jabara and the plains of Qamishalan have been burned in the disputed or Kurdistani areas claimed by Erbil and Baghdad in Iraq’s Diyala province. 

KirkukNow, a multi-lingual news outlet specialized in the disputed territories, reported last week that 400 dunams of cropland were burned on May 16 in Khanaqin district.

Two hundred more dunams of wheat fields were torched in Khanaqin on Wednesday, KirkukNow previously reported. The locals also were reportedly asked to pay a Zakat, or Islamic tax.

The residents of the Mubarak village in Khanaqin received a delegation from the Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense Committee on Thursday, which Rudaw accompanied. The area is 240 kilometers southeast of Erbil.

The committee will report the peoples’ grievances and the security situation back to the speaker of the Iraqi parliament.

"Let me speak. We will relay your voice. We will also relay this suggestion," Nasir Harki, a KDP member of the committee told a local from Jabara in response to shouts of: "We want Peshmerga and Asayesh back.”

On October 16, 2017, Peshmerga forces and Kurdish security forces withdrew from the disputed territories like Khanaqin due to an Iraqi offensive. Many locals initially fled, but have since returned. Farmers have been harvesting wheat crops since mid-May this year. 

“Khanaqin's demand according to what we have heard from the people of Khanaqin is the return of pre-October 16 conditions. The security can be sustained with the return of Peshmerga to jointly protect the borders with the Iraqi Army," Harki said.

Asad Ahmed, a local resident of Mubarak, also told Rudaw they are specifically demanding the return of the Peshmerga and Asayesh.

"I told the [Iraqi] staff general [among the delegation] that we want security. What do I do with the [Iraqi] Army's presence here?" Ahmed added.

The distrust the locals have with the Iraqi forces is apparent and shared by the commander of Peshmerga's Garmaser Front Mahmoud Sangawi. He claims that the Army and Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries are why 31 Kurdish villages there have been emptied and their crops burned.

"Part of the forces that have come to there are Daesh. The Daesh members we have been chasing now reside in Hashd al-Shaabi houses," Sangawi claimed.

Since the October 16 events, 87 civilians, Iraqi army and police have been killed, while 42 more have been injured, according to the Garmaser commander that includes Garmiyan, Khanaqin, and Jalawla (Gulala).

"I had less than half the number of Peshmerga than what the Iraqi Army does now, but I still held on to the area and protected it and fought against Daesh," Sangawi claimed.

Multiple committees have been formed between the Ministry of Peshmerga and Iraq’s Ministry of Defense for joint operations, joint administration of disputed territories and joint operation rooms. But they have borne no fruit. 

Who’s to blame?

Both the Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries and ISIS have been blamed by locals for the fires in Khanaqin, according to KirkukNow.

The Peshmerga commander pointed the finger at "thieves and bandits" who have been brought to the area by the Iraqi Army to steal from the people, gather taxes, smuggle, and drug traffic and kicking Kurdish inhabitants out of their area.

Iraq’s Ministry of Trade released a statement Sunday concerning the burning of fields in Makhmour, blaming it on ISIS.  (http://www.mot.gov.iq/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5141).

The ministry, quoting Minister Hashim al-Aani, urged the interior ministry and Joint Operations Command to chase down the “terrorists” who were targeting “food security of the country.”

The fires were preceded by crops burning to the north in Makhmour where ISIS also has reportedly burned crops of local Kurds in Alia Rash village near Mount Qarachogh after locals refused to pay Zakat. 

ISIS in its al-Naba newspaper claimed on Thursday that it had burned farms of “apostates” in Iraq and Syria, saying there will be a “hot seasons” for “apostates and rawafidh [Shiites].” 

“Hundreds of hectares of agricultural land” that is ripe has been burnt in the past few days in Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Saladin provinces, the claim added.

ISIS fighters set fire to fields in Mubarak and Yusuf Bag villages in the north of Khanaqin on Thursday, ISIS added, also announcing it had burned lands belonging to a Tribal Hashd (Sunni) leader in Khanaqin.

Foreign Policy reported last year that Iraq’s Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries were hiring former ISIS fighters and integrating them into their forces.

Reporting by Halo Mohammed