Peshmerga asks for help six years after paralysis during war against ISIS

HAJYAWA, Kurdistan Region — A Peshmerga fighter who has been struggling with a severe disability since being injured during the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) group says he has yet to receive the government help he needs to stay alive.

Lt. Col. Kamal Salih, 49, a father of six, was partially paralyzed six years ago in a car accident when he was heading to the war front lines against ISIS in western Kirkuk in February 2015.

Struggling with paraplegia — a form of paralysis where the individual loses control over the muscles from the waist down — Salih has been immobile due to an injury to his spinal cord.

“I have lost control from the waist down. My family has to take me to the bathroom several times every day and change my diaper. It’s a hard feeling when I see myself like this. I have become a burden on my family,” Salih, who lives in the Hajyawa subdistrict of Sulaimani’s Raparin administration, told Rudaw on Monday. Salih’s children are university and grade school students. In their absence, it’s hard for his wife to help him alone.

Due to his financial limitations, his relatives collected money to have treatment in the Kurdistan Region and Iran. So far, he has undergone three big surgeries, but to no avail.

“I was taken to a hospital in Sulaimani, and the doctors had told my relatives, ‘if you don’t treat him soon, he will die’,” said the fighter.

Salih has been a member of the Peshmerga since 1991 and is with the 5th infantry brigade.

“The government has not helped me yet," he said. "I have spent about 40 million dinars." 

Although according to those close to Salih, the Peshmerga Ministry said it would send him to Europe in 2017, the injured fighter has yet to receive word of when they would send him.

“We have spent all of our life among the Peshmerga [units] and Kurdish patriotism, and you now see how our situation is. We ask the government and the authorities to come and help us,” said Salih’s wife, Shler Mohammed.

Rudaw contacted senior Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga Ministry officials about Salih’s case. They said they are unaware of the details of his case, but would be happy to meet with in the near future to help.

More than 1,800 Peshmerga fighters were killed and close to 10,000 wounded in three years of battle with ISIS from June 2014 until early 2017 when the remnants of the ISIS were forced out of the Kurdish areas.

A hospital for Kurdistan’s Peshmerga opened with German funds in 2019, but some Peshmerga victims need medical treatments abroad.

Although hundreds of them have been treated abroad, some are still waiting for help.

Additional Reporting by Bakhtiyar Qadir