ISIS movements detected in disputed Qarachogh

MAKHMOUR – Islamic State (ISIS) militants are moving around openly and levying taxes on villagers living at the foot of Mount Qarachogh in the disputed territory of Makhmour, local residents told Rudaw. 

Peshmerga forces control the summit of Mount Qarachogh, 60 km southwest of Erbil, but were forced out of the towns and villages of the valleys below when the Iraqi Army and Shiite paramilitias seized control of Makhmour in October 2017.

Although ISIS was declared defeated in Iraq in December of that year, remnants of the group continue to operate in the disputed no man’s land between Peshmerga lines and Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). 

Just like the Hamrin Mountains of Saladin province, Qarachogh appears to have become a strategic base for ISIS to launch attacks, abductions, and assassinations and to regroup. 

Photographs taken by one villager allegedly show ISIS militants moving around in open daylight. Others say the group controls the villages, regularly demanding zakat (the Islamic tax) in the form of sheep and goats and extorting money. 

Ghazi Faisal, whose family fled their village of Allia Rash, told Rudaw the militants are hiding out in caves and tunnels.

Zryan Sheikh Wasani, the Peshmerga commander in Qarachogh, says his forces must be allowed to return to the disputed territories to flush out the militants before ISIS regains its strength. 

Reporting by Ranja Jamal