The territory, disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, has become a fertile breeding ground for the Islamic State (ISIS) to regroup due to an absence of security forces in the area. Iraq says the movement of the Iraqi army’s Brigade 20 from Division Five and Brigade 4 of the Rapid Response Force to the area is an attempt to fill this void.
The forces are stationed between the Diyala province's Kifri and Salahadin province’s Khurmatu town. They have established nine observation posts so far, according to a count by a Rudaw reporter at the scene.
"The move was uncoordinated," Sarbast Lazgin, deputy minister of the Peshmerga affairs, told Rudaw on Wednesday, saying the deployment could have been ordered by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi himself, because "in recent times, he had visited the region himself."
"They have established their observation posts from Khuichai bridge to nearby [Karez checkpoint]," Arjuman Jalal, a Peshmerga commander in the area, told Rudaw.
Mahmood Sangawi, commander of the Garmaser front which covers the bulk of the area on the Kurdistan Region side, said they suspect "that the force has come to chase Daesh," using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
"The force had come using the main roads. We understand Daesh is not on the asphalt roads," Sangawi told Rudaw Wednesday.
The KRG's Peshmerga ministry has been in talks with their Iraqi counterparts in order to fill the security void left as a result of the events of October 2017 which saw Kurdish forces withdraw from much of the disputed areas and regions that they had protected during the height of the fight against ISIS from 2014 to 2017.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region reached an agreement in early July to resume joint military work in territories they both claim, in a bid to curb a continued Islamic State (ISIS) resurgence.
"Without an agreement, we never accept any troop deployment in any area," Jabar Yawar, secretary general of the Peshmerga Affairs Ministry, told Rudaw Wednesday.
"Such deployments must receive the consent of the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region. We must be told where they station and it must be in coordination with our Peshmerga forces," Yawar added.
The troop deployment comes just four days after a joint operation between a Sulaimani province counter-terror force and an Iraqi counter-terror force launched the fourth stage of an operation against ISIS militants in disputed territories in Diyala province. Peshmerga officials said the operation took place without any coordination with them.
ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017. However, remnants of the group continue to operate in the disputed territories, returning to earlier insurgency tactics including ambushes, kidnappings and targeted killings.
The KRG has previously engaged in disputes with Baghdad over the unilateral deployment of troops to near Kifri.
Kifri town is 188 kilometers southeast of Erbil, located near Tuz Khurmatu and Kalar. As part of the Garmiyan bloc, Kifri has been under KRG control since 1991.
Nasir Harki, a member of the Iraqi Parliament's Defense and Security Committee says they expect "escalations" between the Peshmerga and Iraq, "should they not reach an agreement on joint work in the disputed areas."
By Halo Mohammed. Translated by Zhelwan Z. Wali
