ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants set up a fake checkpoint in an area where there is a security vacuum between Kurdish and federal forces and abducted at least five people, according to security sources and family members. Several people were also injured.
At least nine people were traveling from Erbil back to their home in Makhmour, a town 60 kilometres southwest of Erbil. They were stopped at a fake checkpoint on the road.
“A group from the ISIS terrorist organization set up a checkpoint near Kandar village on the Makhmour road, injuring two people and arresting a number of others,” Kurdistan Region’s counterterrorism units said in a statement on Facebook early Saturday.
Footage sent to Rudaw by relatives of the injured at Erbil Emergency Hospital appears to show three people receiving medical treatment.
“They were returning from Erbil at 11pm [on Friday]. We are from Makhmour,” Ali, father of one of the wounded, told Rudaw in front of the hospital.
“They [ISIS militants] stopped them at their checkpoint in Kandar village. When they realized they were from ISIS but in Iraqi army uniform with Iraqi flag, they tried to escape but were fired at until they reached the Asayish checkpoint,” he said the injured had told him about the incident.
“I passed the road one hour before them, but there was nothing,” he added.
Ali said the injured are stable and will soon undergo surgery.
Rudaw has learnt that two of the people abducted are Kurds and the others are Arabs.
Makhmour lies within an area disputed between the federal and regional governments, resulting in a security void between the two forces that ISIS has exploited. In May, the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces opened a joint coordination centre in Makhmour, one of four designed to improve collaboration and intelligence sharing in order to bring some security to the disputed areas.
ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria increased between April and July as they continue to operate a “low-level” but “well-entrenched” insurgency in rural areas, the Pentagon said in its latest quarterly report released on Tuesday.
ISIS tactics “to conduct hit-and-run and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks; exploit sectarian, political and security gaps; and target vulnerable residents of displaced persons camps for recruitment” remained unchanged. However, “the lethality of ISIS attacks declined, possibly because of constrained resources and inexperienced members,” the report added.
