Five Peshmerga dead and four injured in ISIS Diyala attack

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Five Peshmerga were killed and five injured in an Islamic State (ISIS) attack in Diyala province on Saturday, a Peshmerga source told Rudaw Sunday morning.

Militants attacked the Peshmerga in the Kolajo sub-district at around 10:15pm, a commander of the 5th brigade told Rudaw late Saturday. A Peshmerga vehicle bringing reinforcements hit a roadside bomb, he added.
 
ISIS seized control of swaths of land in Iraq in 2014. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017, but continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. It is especially active in parts of northern Iraq that are disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, including in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin.

"There is no security vacuum here, the Iraqi army is here and we are here. They don't have anyone to come here and conduct attacks among us, but they stay close to Iraqi forces and conduct attacks at night," Mahmoud Sangawi, a senior PUK official and Peshmerga commander told Rudaw’s Hunar Hamid on Sunday morning.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday offered his condolences to the families of the killed Peshmerga.

"The increase in the ISIS attacks sends a dangerous and serious message and brings forth a serious threat in the region. Therefore further cooperation between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi security forces with support from the global coalition is an urgent need," President Barzani said in a statement. 

"We have warned of the threats of ISIS terrorists and their reassembling multiple times. We have tasked the Peshmerga ministry to make more preparations to limit and eliminate the threats," Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani tweeted.

The United States consulate in Erbil on Sunday said it “strongly” condemns the attack.

The US “remains steadfast in its support for the Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces and their efforts to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS,” it said in a tweet. 

Earlier this month, ISIS claimed responsibility for an October attack in which two Peshmerga were killed. ISIS also attacked Peshmerga forces on the Kifri-Garmaser border between Sulaimani and Diyala provinces earlier this month.

Iraqi security forces on November 3 launched an operation in northeastern Diyala province to clear out terror elements following an ISIS attack that left more than a dozen of the area’s residents dead and several others injured. 

Peshmerga officials have blamed deadly ISIS attacks on a lack of coordination between them and Iraqi forces. Efforts to form joint brigades in the disputed areas began earlier this year, but have stalled. In September, Deputy Peshmerga Minister Sarbast Lazgin said brigades would be formed after Iraq’s October 10 election. Joint coordination centres established in the disputed areas earlier this year are “not functioning optimally due to a lack of clarity of the roles and responsibilities of the officers assigned to them,” the Pentagon stated in its latest report on anti-ISIS operations. 

Updated at 9:55 am, November 28