Kurdistan Region calls for unity against ISIS threats
ISIS attacked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters near Pirde in Iraq overnight.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANUpdated: MAY 1, 2021 15:18A Kurdistan Region Peshmerga looks out at ISIS positions from his frontline near Kirkuk in 2015(photo credit: SETH J. FRANTZMAN)ISIS is threatening Iraq again, years after it was pushed out of Mosul and other cities. Although the Iraqi central government and its armed forces, backed by the US-led Coalition, continues to carry out operations, the extremists have found gaps to infiltrate. ISIS attacked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters near Pirde in Iraq overnight.Pirde is one of the areas that marks the dividing line between the autonomous Kurdistan region and the rest of Iraq. In 2017, after the Kurds held an independence referendum, Iraqi federal units and pro-Iranian militias attacked the Kurds near Kirkuk and Kurdish forces withdrew to the area of Pirde. Since then ISIS has moved into areas along the seam between Kurdish forces and Iraqi federal forces and the pro-Iranian PMU. The PMU are a group of militias that control swaths of Iraq. They are called Hashd al-Shaabi locally. Some units of these pro-Iran groups have fired rockets at Erbil over the last year, targeting US forces. This is because US forces have withdrawn from a half dozen facilities in Iraq in response to rocket fire by pro-Iranian groups. Now that there are few US forces in bases, the militias have targeted the Kurdistan region.These tensions with the pro-Iran units mean that ISIS can exploit the tensions between Kurdish forces and Iraqi units in areas like Pirde and near Mount Qarachokh. Now the Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani has called for the establishment of a joint armed force made up of Peshmerga and federal Iraqi army in disputed areas, following an Islamic State (ISIS) group attack on Kurdish forces in western Kirkuk overnight.Three Kurdish Peshmerga were killed in the battles over night near Pirde. Pirde is also called Altun Kupri. “Peshmerga repelled the attack, which took place on the Kirkuk-Erbil road, but three of its fighters were killed and two injured,” noted Rudaw. Regional media have covered the Kurdish call for unity. Sheikh Jafaar Mustafa, vice-president of the Kurdistan region has said he “urges the Iraqi Defense Minister to start liaison seriously with our Peshmarga forces to narrow down the disputed areas between The Region and Southern border, last night we have lost several lives and wounded #Peshmerga. We need to work together to solve this problem.”President Barzani said in a statement that the region has warned the Iraqi government and the global coalition “several times” about ISIS regrouping and exploiting the security gap between Peshmerga and Iraqi army in disputed areas. He renewed his previous call for the establishment of a joint body between both forces, Rudaw noted. “Once again, we call on [Iraqi] parliament, the federal government of Iraq and the global coalition against Daesh [ISIS] to smoothly work on the establishment of a joint force between the Peshmerga and Iraqi army in the disputed areas so that these areas are no longer used as a corridor for the movement of terrorists by Daesh,” said Barzani. “This poses a great danger to the Kurdistan Region and the whole of Iraq.”ISIS infiltration of the seam line between Kurdish and Iraqi federal forces has been a problem for years. In 2019 I went to Qarachokh and observed ISIS members with binoculars who were hiding in caves beneath the mountain. At the time the US still had Security Force Assistance Brigade units in Nineveh and also with the Peshmerga, helping straddle the line. Airstrikes against ISIS took place. In the area of Mahmuhr, for instance, the US Army's 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigade was in Iraq on a mission to train, advise, assist and enable local security forces. The US noted in February 2020 “in Makmuhr mountains of northern Iraq where fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria are regrouping and reforming, the Kurdish Peshmerga operate a small military base close to a series of lookout posts where ISIS fighters have attempted to infiltrate Iraq's Kurdistan region….This time, the [US] brigade has partnered with the Peshmerga's 3rd Battalion, 14th Regional Guard Brigade, training side-by-side to increase their capabilities.”For years the problem was that while the US could work with the Iraqis and Kurds, the Peshmerga generally distrust the PMU and the US has tensions with the PMU because of the rocket fire directed at US facilities. The PMU brigade in Nineveh is called the 30th Brigade. Nearby are several Iraqi army formations of dubious quality. The lack of security has enabled the ISIS presence and also enabled the pro-Iranian groups to use rockets and now even drones, to threaten the area.
