Gunmen kill 4 Kurdish villagers amid disputed territory security vacuum

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Four young Kurds were killed and two more injured in an attack on a Kurdish village northwest of Kirkuk on Wednesday, local witnesses have said, in one of a spate of recent attacks in territories disputed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iraqi federal government in Baghdad.

CCTV camera footage seen by Rudaw’s reporter in the area purportedly shows two gunmen breaking into the Kurdish village of Chakhmakha on Tuesday evening. A gunman can be seen firing through the window of a youth recreation hub, shooting dead four young men and injuring two more. 

“We still don’t know who the assailants are, whether they are Daesh [Islamic State], enemies of Kurds or the Baathists,” one local witness told Rudaw. 

The four young men killed have been identified as Ali Ahmed Darwesh, Mahmoud Ibrahim Khourshid, Ahmed Jassim Khidhir and Mariwan Sirwan. With residents abandoning the village in fear after the attack, the dead were instead buried in the nearby city of Kirkuk. 

Iraq’s Security Media Cell said on Tuesday night that its forces are undertaking a search operation to find the “terrorist elements” who conducted the attack.

Chakhmakha is located in a stretch of disputed land between Dibis, northwest of Kirkuk, and the district of Khanaqin, close to the Iraq-Iran border. 

Though local witness did not definitively identify the attackers as belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS), the area, alongside other territories claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad, has been subject to almost daily ISIS attacks against both Iraqi security personnel and civilians in recent months.

The area is also subject to ethnic tension as Baath-era Arab settlers have returned to demand land. Though Arab-Kurdish civilian disputes over land continue, villagers said they have not translated into armed conflict.

The location of the shooting was a shop that doubled up as a recreational space where young people unwind by smoking shisha and playing games after spending their days farming, villager Salar Sabeer told Rudaw.

After a period of rest, the young residents say they usually take to defense of the village from militants. Local villagers told Rudaw they exchanged fire with the gunmen during Tuesday’s attack.

“We would spend our time there [the hub] until 11 pm at night and then would go out and move through our village to protect its security, because we don’t expect anyone else to protect our security,” one young witness who wished to remain anonymous added.

Local witnesses to the attack spoke to Rudaw on the condition of anonymity, fearing potential retaliation for speaking out. One villager blamed the attack on a reign of lawlessness that security forces have left virtually unchallenged since the Peshmerga were forced to withdraw from disputed territories in a 2017 Iraqi Army offensive.

“There is no security and safety in Kirkuk. We are from Chakhmakha. We have more than once reiterated that there is no security or safety in Kirkuk,” one villager told Rudaw. 

Though territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017, ISIS has resurged where the security vacuum caused by the Erbil-Baghdad territory dispute has opened up.

On Tuesday, ISIS killed an Iraqi soldier and injured three more in an attack in the Khanaqin district town of  Jalawla, known in Kurdish as Gulala.

To raise funds for its attacks, the group has kidnapped locals in return for large ransoms, erected fake road checkpoints while dressed in military fatigues, and stolen local farmer livestock.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the largest political representative of the area in Iraqi parliament, on Wednesday urged the Iraqi government to let Peshmerga back into the disputed territories in response to the attack.

“Necessary and serious steps need to be undertaken [on the side of Iraqi government] to reach an agreement with Peshmerga forces, as a part of the Iraqi military and defense apparatus,” the PUK’s Leadership Council said in a Wednesday statement. 

“Coordinating with the Peshmerga Forces of Kurdistan is the best solution for preventing terrorist infiltration,” the statement added, as the federal government grapples with unrest elsewhere in the country.

KRG deputy prime minster Qubad Talabani said the attack was a clear sign that terrorism was still a "serious threat". 

"The security vacuum in those areas needs to be filled and resolved to put an end to these tragedies,” Talabani said in Wednesday statement. 

“We from the Kurdistan Regional Government will spare no effort for coordination, sweeping, and exchange of information to protect the lives of the residents of these areas,” he added.