ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A minute of silence was held on Sunday across schools in the Kurdistan Region to honor the eleven-year-old child that was brutally killed in an Islamic State (ISIS) attack in Erbil's Makhmour town late last week.
Thousands of students held a moment of silence before starting classes, in honor of Barzan Ismael, who was killed when his two brothers clashed with ISIS on Thursday night. The two brothers aged 18 and 24 were also killed during the clashes.
"We are here to pay respect to the souls of martyrs, and specifically martyr Barzan Ismael," Education Minister Alan Hama Saeed told Rudaw's Payam Sarbast from the school Ismail used to study at.
The minister also announced that the education ministry was going to name a school after Ismael, to "keep his name high and alive," he noted.
Ismael was among thirteen martyrs, including ten Peshmerga fighters, who died when ISIS launched its most recent offensive on Liheban and Khidirjija villages in the Qarachogh area. The terror group claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday.
The 11-year-old boy, who comes from a family of six brothers, was on his way to help his brothers by handing them bullets when he was fatally shot, Kazim Ismael told Rudaw following the attack.
ISIS seized control of swaths of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. Peshmerga officials have blamed the latest series of deadly ISIS attacks on a lack of coordination between them and Iraqi forces in the disputed areas.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani visited the family of the three civilians killed in the attack, telling reporters that the security gap between Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army is to be blamed for the attack.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Friday visited the family of the three civilians who were killed during an ISIS attack on their village in Makhmour town late Thursday.
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) December 3, 2021
📸: Barzani's office pic.twitter.com/R970MxmpnB
The threat posed by ISIS has increased in Iraq, particularly in the disputed territories where it continues to exploit the security vacuum. ISIS has killed eight Kurdish soldiers in five different attacks over the past month.
In the wake of the attacks, a high-level security meeting was held between Iraqi and Kurdish forces to ramp up cooperation between the two on Saturday. The Iraqi army and Peshmerga started talks in July to form two joint brigades to counter ISIS remnants but efforts to form these brigades have so far stalled.
In its propaganda magazine, ISIS claimed to have conducted 12 attacks in Iraq from November 25 to December 2, killing and injuring 20 people.
.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)