“Ever since the Peshmerga forces left the area, five residents of our village have been killed. We have no social issues with anyone. It is Daesh [ISIS] who is killing our families,” Khasraw Ali, a resident of Mardan, told Rudaw.
The village, which consists of just 12 houses, collectively decided to evacuate due to constant threats by “unknown gunmen and Daesh militants”.
“Those who killed our families were just Daesh militants. We suspected they might be Hashd al-Shaabi militants as they are planning to force Kurdish villages out of their homes,” another resident of town, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Rudaw.
Colonel Diyar Shawkat, director of Khanaqin police, told Rudaw: “We asked the residents of the village not to leave their land as we will protect them, but they didn’t agree.”
The village of Mardan is located 15 kilometers west of Khanaqin. It is a Kurdish village where the residents speak the Kalhuri dialect of Kurdish.
Ever since the Peshmerga withdrew from the disputed territories in October 2017, yawning security gaps have emerged, leaving the Kurdish population at risk of attack.
The Kurdish Kakayi villages of southern Kirkuk face similar threats, and have called on the international community to come to their aid.
ISIS remnants have exploited these gaps to reemerge in the Hamrin Mountains, Saladin, Diyala, and Kirkuk provinces.
Plans to open a joint Peshmerga-Iraqi Army operations room to handle security in the disputed territories are under discussion, but official meetings are yet to take place.
