ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdistan’s Peshmerga ministry has refuted recent claims by an Iraqi commander of a joint operation to clear ISIS remnants near disputed Tuz Khurmatu.
Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, a deputy commander in Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, said on Saturday that a meeting was held between officials from the Iraqi Army, Federal Police and Hashd al-Shaabi in order to conduct an operation in east of Kirkuk province and Tuz Khurmatu city.
The Iraqi commander said that “we have cooperated with our Peshmerga brothers and the operation is carried out in our defense lines and Peshmerga defense lines.”
He added that the operation aims to provide protection and impose the rule of law. He also said that there is complete cooperation between the participating forces regarding the distribution of fronts.
Jabar Yawar, the secretary general of the Peshmerga ministry, has refuted the claim.
“As the Ministry of Peshmerga and the High Defense Council of Ministry of Peshmerga, we have not held any meeting with [Iraqi] military officials or the Iraqi Ministry of Defense,” he told Rudaw.
The operation is to clear the area of “remnants of ISIS,” added Yaralla.
Fleeing ISIS militants have sought cover and to regroup in the Hamrin Mountains near Tuz, according to Kurdish security officials.
In the nearby town of Bamo on January 21, Kurdish officials repelled an overnight raid. The next day Kurdish Asayesh (security) officials suspected they had found an ISIS hideout in the mountains after finding a weapons cache including a “BKC rifle, two Kalashnikov rifles, a sack of TNTs, 17 RPG bullets, many food substances, and a box of bullets.”
Lt. Col. Abdulamir al-Mohammadawi, the spokesperson for Iraq’s Rapid Response Force (RRF), told Rudaw on January 15 that they would conduct such operations and “coordinate with the brave Peshmerga in this regard.”
The oil-rich Kirkuk city and Tuz Khurmatu district fell to Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi on October 16. Both are regarded as disputed or Kurdistani areas claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad.
Tuz Khurmatu is 155 kilometers south of the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil.
Tens of thousands of people from both Kirkuk and Khurmatu are sheltering in Erbil and Sulaimani, fearing persecution from the Shiite paramilitary groups.
The Iraqi parliament has voted to establish a multi-ethnic committee to investigate events in Tuz Khurmatu after international organizations like Amnesty International and also Rudaw’s own reporting found that Kurdish homes had been damaged after the October 2017 incursions.
