Turmoil in forming new Iraqi government reason for Erbil-Baghdad joint brigades inaction: official
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s struggle to form a new government months after October’s election has jeopardized the work of the joint brigades between the Iraqi and Kurdish security forces that are set to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) in disputed territories, an official told Rudaw on Sunday following a recent attack by the terror group in Kirkuk.
"The two brigades have finalized everything, but they only have the issue of salaries left which is due to not forming the [new] Iraqi government, ” Major General Abdulkhaliq Talaat, the Kurdistan Region representative for the Joint Operations Command told Rudaw Radio, adding that the current government cannot issue orders because it's a caretaker cabinet and not permanent.
Talaat noted that while the names of the joint brigade troops have been sent to the finance ministry, their salaries will not be distributed until Baghdad forms its next government.
Iraq held its parliamentary election on October 10, and has so far failed to elect a new president.
Despite the decline of ISIS activities in Iraq in recent months, the jihadist group has continued to pose a serious threat.
On Saturday night, ISIS fighters attacked a village in the Rashad sub-district southern Kirkuk province, an area synonymous with ISIS activities, killing two civilians and kidnapping at least three others, according to Hiwa Hussamadin, a Rudaw reporter on the ground.
Faisal Anwar, a security official from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) late Sunday told state media only one civilian had been kidnapped and that he was freed hours after his abduction.
ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming that their forces killed three and injured a further four on Telegram channels affiliated with the terror group.
The Peshmerga ministry announced in July they were working on the formation of two joint brigades of Iraqi and Peshmerga forces to counter ISIS remnants in the disputed areas, cooperating in order to reduce the threat of the group’s resurgence.
ISIS seized control of swathes of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. ISIS remnants are particularly active in parts of northern Iraq that are disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, including in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin.
KRG's representative said that anti-ISIS operations in the disputed areas will continue to be shared until the two brigades start their operations once Iraq's next government takes power.
The two brigades will be fully under the control of the federal government, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Peshmerga Jabar Yawar told Rudaw English last year.
"Peshmerga forces will be transferred to these brigades and become part of the Iraqi forces. They will no longer remain as Peshmerga but be affiliated to Iraqi Armed Forces Command. The force that will be formed will include Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and other groups. It is not a Kurdish or Arab force," Yawar stated.
Abdul Amir al-Shammari, the deputy commander of Iraqi Joint Operations, told Rudaw on December that the "cooperation, coordination, and joint action" between Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga will eliminate ISIS attacks.
In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted seven attacks in Iraq from March 31 to April 6, killing and injuring 16 people.
Updated at 11:27 pm