Four dead in suspected ISIS attacks near Makhmour: Iraqi commander

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Explosive devices planted by suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants killed at least four people in two villages near Makhmour early Saturday morning, an Iraqi army commander told Rudaw English.

Suspected ISIS militants planted an improvised explosive device (IED) in al-Khattab village. It exploded around 1am on Saturday, Idris Khidhir Saeed, deputy commander of Division 14 of the Iraqi army, told Rudaw English.

“Al-Khattab village borders Haj Ali village. When the explosion took place in al-Khattab, the residents of the other village ran to their aid,” Saeed said. A group from Haj Ali was targeted by an IED on the way to help their neighours. 

The dead are police officer Captain Khalid Fathi al-Haibi and his brother Mohammed Fathi al-Haibi, an engineer at Iraqi electricity ministry, a civilian named Shakir Mahmoud, and Abdulsattar Jassim al-Haibi, a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic). 

Nine people were injured in the two attacks, according to Saeed. 

A security source, who spoke to Rudaw on the condition of anonymity, said the mukhtar (chieftain) of al-Khattab village was also among the dead.

ISIS has not immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Makhmour lies within areas disputed by Erbil and Baghdad. The security gap between Kurdish and federal forces has been exploited by ISIS in order to carry out attacks on villagers and security forces. In May, the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces opened a joint coordination centre in Makhmour, one of a handful designed to improve collaboration and intelligence sharing in order to bring some security to the disputed areas. However, this has not stopped ISIS attacks. 

The group set up a fake checkpoint in Makhmour on August 6 and abducted a number of people. Two of them were released a few days later.   


Additional reporting by Nahro Mohammed