ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi defense ministry has allocated a special budget for the joint brigades between Iraqi and Kurdish security forces to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) in the 2023 budget bill, a Peshmerga ministry representative at the Joint Operations Command told Rudaw on Monday. “Within the budget of the Iraqi defense ministry and within the general funds of the year 2023, a special budget has been allocated for the two joint brigades between the Kurdistan Region and the Iraqi federal government,” Abdul Jabbar Zangana, the representative of the Ministry of Peshmerga to the Joint Operations Command, told Rudaw, adding that the number of soldiers within the brigades will be equivalent to a brigade in the Iraqi defense system. Iraqi army and Peshmerga have formed joint brigades to fight ISIS in the disputed territories, which stretch across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala, but prior government formation turmoil and the previous non-allocation of a budget has prevented their work from materializing. “The two brigades will be deployed after the approval of the budget by the Iraqi parliament,” Zangana added. Within the two brigades, the Iraqi army soldiers have received military training while the Peshmerga have yet to receive their share, according to Zangana. The two brigades will be fully under the control of the Iraqi federal government, former Secretary-General of the Ministry of Peshmerga Jabar Yawar told Rudaw English in 2021. "Peshmerga forces will be transferred to these brigades and become part of the Iraqi forces. They will no longer remain as Peshmerga but be affiliated to Iraqi Armed Forces Command. The force that will be formed will include Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and other groups. It is not a Kurdish or Arab force," Yawar stated at the time. ISIS seized control of swathes of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. In December, an Iraqi army spokesperson revealed that they had killed over 200 ISIS fighters in 2022.
