Fear of coalition keeping ISIS from retaking territory: Kurdistan Region vice president

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Fear of the US-led global coalition is keeping the Islamic State (ISIS) from recapturing cities it invaded in 2014, the Kurdistan Region’s Vice President Sheikh Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa has told Rudaw, adding that the terror group is "very strong" in Iraq. 

“I believe that Daesh [ISIS] can even recontrol cities if it was not for fear of the coalition. Daesh is currently very strong … in terms of quantity, quality, weapons and everything,” Mustafa told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman during an interview aired on Wednesday. 

“For example, now they have a kind of weapon with night vision and thermal binoculars with which they can easily kill and martyr those [Iraqi] soldiers or Peshmerga forces one by one from a long distance. They previously did not have these weapons. Therefore, Daesh is very strong now in all aspects,” added the vice president, a former Peshmerga commander.  

ISIS took control of swathes of Iraq and Syria in summer 2014. It was announced territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017. However, the terror group ISIS remains active across the country, especially in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.

The vice president also said that ISIS is “very strong” in the vicinity of cities it used to control, warning they are regrouping there and receiving more fighters from Syria. 

“They have tunnels and huge military bases on Mount Hamrin and they have a large number of forces on Mount Qarachogh” he said, referring to disputed territories near Erbil.  

A lack of coordination between security forces has created a security vacuum in the disputed territories, exploited by ISIS, where it carries out regular ambushes and attacks.

“The lack of coordination between Peshmerga forces and Iraqi army has caused a great security vacuum where Daesh carries out its activities as per its desire. It also regroups in there, especially behind Iraqi army. This vacuum is small in areas located between us and Iraqi army,” acknowledged Sheikh Mustafa. 

According to data provided to Rudaw by Jabar Yawar, Secretary General of the Peshmerga ministry, ISIS conducted 230 attacks in 2020 alone in the disputed areas, during which 812 people had been either killed, injured, or kidnapped as a result.

ISIS claimed on Thursday in its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba that it had killed and injured 40 people in 30 attacks in Iraq in a week.  

The Peshmerga ministry said in a statement on February 3 that they had deployed forces to Makhmour and Qarachogh “as a result of security threats imposed by ISIS.”

Col. Wayne Marotto, spokesperson for the global coalition against ISIS, said on Thursday that the US-Kurdistan Region relationship “has an essential role to security and stability in the region.” 

“Together, we remain united in the fight to #DefeatDaesh, he tweeted. ”