ISIS claims deadly attack on Peshmerga forces in Diyala

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Islamic State group (ISIS) late on Sunday claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the Peshmerga in Diyala province, releasing a statement less than two hours after the Kurdish force said the militants carried out another assault on their position in the same region. 

Five Peshmerga were killed and five others injured in an attack in the Kolajo sub-district on Saturday night. In a statement on its propaganda Telegram channel late on Sunday, ISIS said their militants carried out the attack. 

The terror group 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.

The Peshmerga fought off another ISIS attack on a checkpoint in Kifri, Diyala province late on Sunday, the Peshmerga ministry said in a tweet. There are no reports of injuries or casualties.

ISIS has carried out five attacks on the Peshmerga in the past month, killing seven Kurdish soldiers.

Earlier this month, ISIS claimed responsibility for a late October attack in which two Peshmerga were killed on the Erbil-Kirkuk border. A few days later, the Peshmerga repelled another attack in the same area. ISIS also attacked Peshmerga forces on the Kifri-Garmaser border between Sulaimani and Diyala provinces earlier this month.

Peshmerga officials have blamed the deadly ISIS attacks on a lack of coordination between them and Iraqi forces in the disputed areas. Efforts to form joint brigades in the disputed areas began earlier this year, but have stalled.

The gap between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces is up to 40 kilometres wide in parts. “ISIS has been able to exploit the lack of coordination between forces to operate in the ungoverned territory,” the Pentagon stated in its latest report on anti-ISIS operations. 

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.

In the latest edition of its weekly propaganda magazine al-Nabaa, ISIS claimed it carried out eight attacks in Iraq, killing and injuring 20 people.