ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Farmers in Kirkuk province have started harvesting their crops earlier than usual this year, fearing they cannot be protected from the annual arson committed by Islamic State (ISIS) insurgents. Kirkuk lies amid a patchwork of territories over which control has long been disputed between the Iraqi central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. The final status of the ethnically diverse and resource-rich areas surrounding Kirkuk was never permanently settled, leading to a vacuum of uncertainty of who controls them. Although ISIS was declared defeated after US-backed forces in Syria pummeled its final holdouts in March 2019, the group has continued to launch attacks, including kidnappings, assassinations, and ambushes, particularly in rural areas. Down but not out, ISIS militants have gone underground, using a scorched earth policy in areas from which they retreat or where they are defeated. Last year, thousands of acres of wheat and barley fields, in both Syria and Iraq, were scorched by fires during the harvest season, some of which the group claimed responsibility for. The harvest season in Kirkuk usually starts in mid-June and lasts until July, but this year harvesting started on May 20. Rajab Kakai is an activist in the Kirkuk district of Daquq, home to members of the Kakai religious minority subject to targeted persecution by ISIS for their religious beliefs. He told Rudaw English that farmers in the area have been harvesting crops early in fear of a repeat of the arson they saw in previous summers. "It's true that many farmers in Daquq and the disputed territories are harvesting their crops earlier this season, fearing the ISIS militants who set the agricultural land in the area ablaze," Kakai told Rudaw English on Monday. According to Kakai, farmers in the area have taken collective precautions transcending ethnic lines to prevent the repeat of agricultural arson. "The majority of Kakai farmers jointly planted their agricultural lands with the Arab farmers to avoid militants of ISIS groups and other militants from burning their lands," Rajab said. ISIS has vowed to exploit the drawdown of American troops, who have been repositioned away from several Iraq military bases in recent months, leaving the fight against ISIS in the hands of Iraqi Security Forces. In its most deadly attack since its nominal defeat, the group carried out a five-pronged offensive on Iraqi security forces that killed ten Iraqi soldiers in Salahaddin province on May 2. On the same day, militants killed three federal police officers and wounded two others in an attack on a police station in Diyala province. The Iraqi military has been tracking ISIS holdouts that remain active in the rugged mountains of Qarachogh overlooking the town of Makhmour in Nineveh province, and in the Hamrin mountains crisscrossing Kirkuk, Salahaddin and Diyala provinces. Militants hide out in caves and crevices during the day, and descend to the plains at night, terrorizing the locals and extorting them for food and money. While it has kept up ambitious threats on its communication channels, a Pentagon assessment issued in May found that ISIS' capabilities remain "low-level". But the threat posed by the militant group is all too imminent for the province's farmers. ISIS are "very active" and "widespread" in the area, Daquq farmer Saman Ibrahim Hayaz told Rudaw English on Monday; he harvested his crops ten days ago in fear of impending arson. According to Hayaz, local farmers are unable to rely on the security forces to come to their defence. "Federal police and the Iraqi Security Forces only come after all the land is already burned, its not useful," he said. Additional reporting by Shawn Carrié in Erbil and Associated Press in Kirkuk
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