Lack of funds hinders formation of joint Kurdish-Iraqi brigades: Peshmerga official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The joint Kurdish and Iraqi force brigades have not been established yet months after plans for them were announced due to Iraq’s finance ministry not having provided the expected funds, a top Peshmerga official said on Monday.

“Besides coordination centers, it was decided that two brigades would be formed. The two brigades, one of them from Khanaqin to southern Kirkuk, and one from northern Kirkuk to Sihela area,” Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs chief of staff Jabar Yawar said on Monday during a conference by Rudaw’s Research Center. “Now the Ministry of Finance says I have no budget to provide these two joint brigades with their needs as well as monthly payments.”

These joint brigades aim to reduce the threat of the resurgence of the Islamic State (ISIS), a militant group that formerly held control of large swathes of territory in Iraq until it was territorially in 2017. ISIS remains a threat in both Iraq and Syria, carrying out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.

Yawar added that the Ministry of Peshmerga has already prepared a number of troops and set up the force division, but are waiting on funds for the ambitious project.

When the brigade is formed, “the Peshmerga forces will be transferred to the brigade, it will have nothing to do with the Regional Government,” said Yawar.

The two brigades, which Yawar says will make up about 7,000 people, “don’t need a large budget,” according to the official.

“Last week, as you all saw, a budget was provided for 30,000 people in Hashd al-Shaabi. That was around 76 billion Iraqi dinars just for salaries,” noted Yawar.

The ministry of Peshmerga announced the formation of two joint brigades of Iraqi and Peshmerga forces to counter ISIS remnants in the disputed areas in July. The ministry in August said that they will deploy the forces as soon as they have reached an agreement regarding the budget. 

In May, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi promised to return former fighters of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or al-Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) to service even if it requires amendments to the entire budget law. 

ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria have increased between the months of April and July as they continue to operate a "low-level" but "well-entrenched" insurgency in rural areas, the Pentagon said in its quarterly report. 

In May, the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces opened a joint coordination centre in Makhmour, one of four designed to improve collaboration and intelligence-sharing to bring about some level of security to the disputed areas. 

The militant group in August set up a fake checkpoint in Makhmour, an area where there is a security vacuum between Kurdish and federal forces. It abducted at least five people and injured three others.  Two of the abducted were released a few days later.