Security to be stepped up in Salahaddin following Sunni killings: Kadhimi

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has pledged to increase security in Salahaddin province following the deaths of a group of abducted Sunnis last week.   

“Your sons who have been killed and persecuted are also our children. Their blood will not be lost in vain. We will direct the presence of the security forces to strengthen [security] and provide more protection,” state media reported Kadhimi as saying in a visit to victims’ families. 

“Terrorists will never have a shelter or place no matter how they try to infiltrate. The hand of law and justice will break the back of their remnants wherever they appear,” the PM said.

Kadhimi led a delegation accompanied by the Ministers of Defence and Interior, the Head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army to Salahaddin on Sunday after the bodies of ten missing Sunnis were found on Saturday. 

Twelve people were abducted in the village of Farahat on Friday, Khaled Jabbarra, head of Sunni political party Wafd and a member of Salahaddin's tribal forces told Rudaw. 

All were members of Sunni tribal forces, according to Jabbarra. The bodies of ten of the missing were found the following day.  

On Sunday, Kadhimi met senior security commanders and was briefed on preliminary investigations into the killings, according to a tweet from Yehia Rasool, spokesperson for Kadhimi as the commander-in-chief of Iraq’s armed forces. 

"Our message to the citizens of Salah al-Din [Salahaddin] is that the state will protect them, and that the ideology of the armed forces is wrapped around loyalty to the homeland and the law, not to individuals or other names," read a tweet from the prime minister's office.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abduction or deaths, but Jabbarra said the area under the control of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a faction of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi), a Shiite paramilitary network. 

A statement from US Ambassador to Iraq Matthew Tueller condemned the attack in Farahat as a "heinous murder of Iraqi civilians."

"We hope that PM Kadhimi’s visit to Farahat today will be an important step in finally bringing all armed units under state control, which is the only way to prevent further bloodshed," read the statement published on Sunday.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani also condemned the deaths in what was described as a "mass killing of several civilians."

"We urge the relevant institutions of the Federal Government to take speedy measures to find the terror group behind the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice," read a Sunday statement from the Kurdistan Region Presidency. 

"It is the duty of all parties to cooperate and support the Federal Government to confront the constant threats, crimes and assaults on people’s lives and the institutions of the country," it added. 

Sunnis predominate across northern and western parts of the country, including Anbar, Salahaddin, Nineveh and Diyala provinces – areas that fell to the Islamic State (ISIS) when the group swept through Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014.

In September of last year, Iraq’s highest judiciary authority said it would investigate 'disappeared' Sunnis, most of whom were believed to have gone missing after being detained at checkpoints manned by the PMF and the Iraqi Security Forces during operations targeting ISIS. However, little to no investigation appears to have been carried out.

Updated at 7:11 pm

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