Joint operations were conducted between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the US-led Coalition to defeat ISIS over the past couple of days near the town of Makhmour, a territory disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, Sirwan Barzani, commander of the Peshmerga on the Gwer-Makhmour front, told Rudaw English on Wednesday.
“They were killed by the Coalition’s air forces in two separate days. In the south of Qarachogh six militants were killed, and in the north of Qarachogh four militants were killed,” said the commander. “The searching and inspection operations are ongoing.”
Operations continued on Wednesday, with forces surveying tunnels and caves in the area, but no militants were located.
Barzani noted that anti-ISIS raids have intensified over the past four months.
“We had halted these activities due to coronavirus, but we have resumed intensive search and inspection since July, because according to our intel and intel from the coalition the movement of Daesh has increased,” he said.
Located just 60 kilometers southwest of Erbil, Qarachogh mountain has become a safe haven for Islamic State fighters since the group’s territorial control of the Nineveh Plains came to an end in mid-2017.
Kurdish officials have repeatedly warned about the resurgence of ISIS in Makhmour, part of a swathe of northern Iraqi territory whose control is disputed by the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil and the federal government in Baghdad.
“The dispute has created a vacuum in which neither government wants to conduct operations against ISIS in areas of the seam, either due to a lack of political will or due to a fear that doing so could instigate conflict between the two governments,” the Pentagon Inspector General reported in a report released in February.
Kurdish and Iraqi security forces backed by the US-led Coalition have separately carried out several operations in the area, but have failed to root out the militants from the arid mountains.
With reporting by Khazan Jengiz
