ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Islamic State late Thursday claimed responsibility for an attack on an Iraqi Brigadier General and his aide last week in Kirkuk province as fears mount over the group’s resurgence following the departure of the US-led Global Coalition to defeat ISIS from within the country in late September.
“Islamic State … in the Iraqi Province of Kirkuk killed a senior officer in the … army and his aid, and wounded others, in a new bombing that targeted an enemy military operation south-west of Kirkuk,” stated a reposted article from ISIS-affiliated newspaper al-Naba.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks on Ahat Yasser Khudair Hussein, head of the 11th Infantry Division’s communications unit, and Warrant Officer Mutaz Shaheed Abbas, alongside wounding three others.
Since the withdrawal of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS from Iraq on September 30 following a bilateral agreement established between Baghdad and Washington, there have been growing fears that ISIS sleeper cells and active detachments in the Kirkuk province would gain strength.
ISIS militants exploit the disputed region’s “gaps” in security presence between the Iraqi and Peshmerga forces in the area, Mazen Gharib, a member of the Iraqi parliament Security and Defense Committee, told Rudaw’s Gashaw Khalid.
This attack occurred after Hussein’s brigade was conducting an inspection of an alleged IS hideout that had been targeted by Iraqi Airforce F-16 fighter jets the previous day in Wadi Zghitin when a device exploded, according to Iraq’s Defense Ministry.
ISIS’ post reported that “the Rafidi forces are usually keen to reach these bombed sites in search of any semblance of achievement under the wings of American aircraft.”
The article concludes with a summary titled, Iraqi Recap or Iraqi Yield detailing ISIS’ statistics over the previous 50 days, inclusive of last week’s act. This section claims to have killed 18 people, destroyed or damaged four vehicles, and performed nine separate attacks.
The publication of the article was allegedly on the same night that Iraq’s popular mobilized forces (PMF) reported another attack by the “remnants of the ISIS group that has been thwarted in the Hawija District of Kirkuk.”
Gharib continued that ISIS militants did not fear Iraqi F-16 fighter jets “because the planes fly low and make noise, [they] easily detect them.”
These F-16 fighter jets were used by the Iraqi army on Tuesday of last week with the aim of destroying the ISIS hideout in Wadi Zghitin. This operation then led to the deaths of the Brigadier General and his aide following the site’s inspection the following day.
In 2014, ISIS seized control of large swathes of Iraqi territory. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but continues to conduct bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.
