ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Islamic State (ISIS) militants attacked Kurdish Peshmerga forces for the third consecutive night in Diyala province, one Peshmerga source told Rudaw on Monday, the same night a sixth Peshmerga died from Saturday’s attack in the province.
Six ISIS militants on motorcycles attacked Peshmerga in a village near Kifri district, Peshmerga commander Brigadier General Dler Mahmood told Rudaw on Monday.
One Peshmerga was killed and three were injured in the attack, Rebwar Mohammed, head of the emergency wing of Kifri’s Shahid Khalid hospital, told Rudaw on Monday.
This is the third night in a row that Peshmerga have been attacked in Diyala province. In a Saturday attack in the province, six Peshmerga died and four were injured. The sixth, Omer Tofiq, died on Monday due to his injuries, a close relative told Rudaw’s Zhyar Hakim.
Tofiq, who has been a Peshmerga since 2004, left behind five children.
Families of some of the other five Peshmerga killed on Saturday, named as Ismael Mohammed, 61, Amin Hussein, 33, Ibrahim Baran, 40, Aras Samin and Nabard Saeed, have told Rudaw of their grief.
On Sunday again, the Ministry of Peshmerga said they had foiled an attack by militants in the province.
Diyala is among the territories disputed by the Iraqi and Kurdish governments. Security forces frequently carry out operations against ISIS in these areas, but there is a lack of coordination between Iraqi and Kurdish forces that is blamed for leaving the troops vulnerable to attack.
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.
Peshmerga have been attacked several times this year. 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.
Additional reporting: Huner Hamid and Zhyar Hakim
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