“In a shameful crime, and during the days of holy Ramadhan, terrorist elements staged an attack on the house of the mukhtar of al-Lazaka village in the Hamam al-Alil district in the Nineveh province…” read a statement from Iraq’s Security Media Cell afternoon.
Seven people were targeted in the attack that was not immediately claimed by Islamic State (ISIS) media outlets.
Mukhtar Mujbil Mankhi, two of his children, his mother and his nephew were killed, according to the Iraqi statement. His wife and niece were described as injured.
“A terrorist was also injured during this treacherous cowardly incident. For their part, the security forces have commenced searching for this criminal group that will not escape the hands of our armed forces, and retaliation is near,” the media cell added.
Ghazwan Hamd Hameed, the head of Nineveh Provincial Council’s Human Rights Committee, also released a statement on Thursday, detailing the attack occurred in the early morning hours.
“The committee expresses its utter and total dissatisfaction for what happened and for the deteriorating security situation in Nineveh province, absolutely a result of political rivalries and not undertaking security measures to protect the lives of people,” read a statement from the Human Rights Committee of Nineveh Provincial Council.
The committee demanded more from security officials and an end to “greed” on part of politicians to address the issue and also for “urgent measures” to be undertaken immediately to prevent such incidents from happening again.
The commander of Nineveh Operations Command Najm al-Jabouri revealed on Thursday that a number of villages in the province will be armed.
“A meeting of tribal leaders of remote villages was held. The Chief of Staff of the Army gave directions to arm 50 remote villages to defend itself against possible terrorist attacks by small groups here and there,” Jabouri detailed.
An Iraqi and Syria battlefield analyst, who uses the moniker Tom the Based Cat and intimately follows security incidents, tweeted the Shura cell of ISIS was behind the attack. “I've never seen anything like it, the terrorists murdered toddlers,” he tweeted.
Jabouri, the prominent Iraqi commander, however believes the saga of ISIS is over in Iraq.
“Daesh is a story that has ended and folded,” al-Jabouri added, however he admitted that that small ISIS groups could still stage attacks in remote areas.
Mosul Eye, a Twitter account run by Mosul historian and native Omar Mohammed, who covertly relayed credible information during the ISIS conflict from inside the city called the announcement to arm 50 villages in the province “strange news.”
Such events shouldn’t “shake the self-trust” of people, Jabouri implored.
Hamam al-Alil is in an area of Nineveh on the Tigris River that is located about 25 kilometers southeast of the center of Mosul city. It was the final southern town liberated by Iraqi Security Forces in November 2016 prior to the major offensive to liberate eastern Mosul. The area is under the security portfolio of Iraqi authorities.
All through northern Iraq — in addition to the disputed or Kurdistani areas claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad — attacks by armed groups including ISIS sleeper cells have continued 18 months after Iraq declared the extremists “defeated.”
“Terrorists” attacked an Iraqi Federal Police guard post on the main Erbil-Kirkuk road late on Monday, killing three officers. Iraq's elite US-trained Counterterrorism Services (ICTS) have been conducting anti-ISIS operations in the province over the past month.
Between Mosul and Kirkuk, ISIS militants murdered an Asayesh (Kurdish security) member Bashdar Safar after kidnapping him and four friends who were searching for desert truffles earlier this month.
ISIS, through one of its media arms on Telegram, claimed on Thursday they killed a member of the Sunni Tribal Forces on Wednesday in Shirqat a town in Saladin Province just south of Hamam al-Alil.
“They killed an apostate and injured two more with the fire of their weapons. The Mujahideen detonated a planted bomb in the middle of their vehicles, destroying a number of them and burned a truck.”
As Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi has his cabinet filled with technocrats, successful coordination between the country’s layered and ethnically diverse security apparatus remains a challenge.
Additionally, a perceived gap between the federal and provincial governments undermines the premier’s authority and ability to react to issues like extremism, unrest in Basra, the Kirkuk question, and coordinating with the Kurdistan Regional Government to address the disputed areas, Shingal, Iranian policy and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) presence, and the return of more than 1.6 million internally displaced persons.
There have been attempts in recent days to dissolve the provincial government amid ongoing accusations of rife corruption and bribery. Unstable Nineveh currently lacks a governor and has no date set for a provincial council vote. Former Governor Nawfal Hamadi was sacked by the Iraqi parliament following the capsizing of a ferry in March that killed around 150 people, and allegations of corruption and negligence.
