Kurdish Forces Fight ISIS North of Baghdad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish forces reported continued fighting in the ethnically-mixed town of Jalawla, north of the Iraqi capital, but said they had nearly seized full control from Islamist insurgents who have vowed to march on Baghdad to overthrow the Shiite-led government.

“Peshmerga forces control 90 percent of the neighborhoods in Jalawla,” said Ali Shaheed, a commander of Asayish (security) forces in Garmiyan, in the autonomous Kurdistan Region. “The outskirts of Jalawla are also controlled by our forces,” he added, about a town that is just a little more than 150 kilometers north of Baghdad.

He said that only one of the town districts, Tajneed, was still in the hands of the fervently Sunni Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has been in the lead of rebels who since last week have racked up stunning victories. They captured sweeping swathes of Iraq’s Sunni-populated territories, including the second-largest city, Mosul, and are fighting to take over the Baiji oil refinery, Iraq’s largest.

The fighters, bands of jihadis from different Islamist groups and loyalists of Iraq’s ousted regime, say they want to topple the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Islamists’ goal is to create an Islamic state on territory straddling Iraq and Syria.

The Kurdish commander said that the Peshmerga forces had launched a heavy artillery attack on Tajneed two days ago, but failed to dislodge the rebels.

“The town of Sadiyah, the village of Marjana and the region of Kobrat, which were previously controlled by the Iraqi army, are now under control of the armed groups,” Shaheed said.

Iraqi forces collapsed and fled under the ISIS attack on Mosul, leaving behind even their weapons. The autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) then moved its Peshmerga forces into Kurdish-populated areas outside its official borders, including the prize city of Kirkuk.

Diyala province has been a stronghold of the Islamists, but with an ethnically-mixed population that includes many Kurds.  

Maliki, whose intransigence and negligence of the country’s very large Sunni minority is blamed for the present turmoil, has declared a state of emergency and – together with the highest Shiite authorities – called on followers to take up arms and for Shiite militias to revive and fight the Sunni militants.

Maliki’s government has pleaded for US intervention, including airstrikes. US President Barack Obama said Thursday his administration is looking at ways of helping, but without deploying troops.

Amid the fighting and confusion over who holds which territory, two Peshmerga soldiers who mistakenly drove into an ISIS checkpoint were captured by the militants, after a similar incident last week.

According to relatives of the detained Peshmergas, ISIS demands for their release vary each time they speak to them through local tribes.

A tribal chief, who spoke to Rudaw on condition of animosity, said that efforts for the release of the Peshmergas were underway. “We are talking to the armed men to have them released, and all the tribal leaders of the area demand their release, too.”

He added that in Sadiyah, where it is in full control, the ISIS has imposed a curfew.  “Most of the insurgents are not Iraqis,” the chief disclosed. “They are from Chechnya, Afghanistan, Tunisia and Algeria.”

He explained that, because of the many orchards in and around the town, the militants are using motorbikes to get around.

Another tribal chief, Sheikh Abdulsamad from the Zirgushia tribe, said that people in the areas, including Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans, had taken up arms against the ISIS.