“The existing security vacuum has given Daesh (ISIS) terrorists a golden opportunity to regroup,” Shoresh Ismail told journalists in Kolajo, Garmiyan region, after visiting Peshmerga forces for Eid al-Adha.
“If this is not tackled, they may do worse actions in the future.”
Four members of the Kurdish security forces were killed in an ISIS ambush in Kolajo less than two weeks ago.
Despite the announcement of their territorial defeat in Iraq in December 2017, ISIS remnants and their sophisticated network of sleeper cells continue to operate in the areas considered disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, including Nineveh and Diyala.
These security vacuums opened up between Kurdish and Iraqi lines in October 2017 when Iraqi forces seized many of the disputed territories, which Kurds believe should be part of their autonomous Region.
The Iraqi Army and Peshmerga forces last week launched simultaneous operations against the group in the Kolajo district of Diyala province, 188 kilometers southeast of Erbil between Kalar and Tuz Khurmatu.
“The objective behind this operation is to pursue ISIS militants and troublemakers in this region,” Brig. Gen. Kamal Mahmood, commander of the Peshmerga Infantry Force Brigade 5, told Rudaw on August 5.
“We will increase watch posts in Kolajo and we have brought in more reinforcements and will station them in newly established frontlines,” Mahmood added.
Iraqi security forces ended the third phase of the ‘Will of Victory’ operation aimed at defeating ISIS sleeper cells, Yehia Rasul, a spokesperson for Iraqi Security Media Cell, told Rudaw, adding that the fourth phase will be announced soon.
ISIS militants sized vast areas of Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014. Although it was defeated in 2017 by Iraqi, Peshmerga, and US-led coalition forces, it has since returned to its earlier insurgency tactics of ambushes, abductions, and arson.
According to a report from the US Secretary of Defense’s Lead Inspector General to the US Congress published on August 2, “ISIS is rebuilding in remote territory, which is hard for Iraqi forces to secure,” and is “able to recruit in these areas [Iraq’s northern and western provinces] using family and tribal connections”.
However, Iraq’s Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi told journalists on Friday that Iraqi forces have not seen any “real resistance” from ISIS in recent operations against the group, indicating the militants are weak.
“So far, we have not encountered real resistance from Daesh (ISIS) in areas described by some media outlets and foreign people as dangerous areas,” he told journalists in Baghdad.
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