The raid is covering territory near Sheikh Bzaini, an area in the Shwan sub-district, 35 kilometers north of Kirkuk city. The center of Shwan is under the control of the Iraqi government, while Sheikh Bzaini in the north of the sub-district is under the security control of the Peshmerga. Peshmerga say they will be securing a no man’s land between central Shwan and Sheikh Bzaini, where suspected ISIS militants have taken advantage of the security vacuum.
Commenting on the raid, Brig. Hiwa Abdulla, a Kurdish Peshmerga commander said "this area is a joint borderline between us and the Iraqi forces.”
“We do not enjoy good coordination between our forces [Peshmerga and federal Iraqi forces]," said the commander of the reason behind the insecurity.
"Unfortunately, we have not yet discovered any trace of the militant’s havens," Abdulla told Rudaw, adding that their "efforts will continue."
Three young men were killed and set ablaze in Sheikh Bzaini’s village of Toulk last week.
Peshmerga fighter Aram Mustafa, his brother Harez, and cousin Peshawa Abdulrahman, all in their 20s, were searching for cattle in the area when they were killed.
A day later, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted to its Telegram channel.
Disputed territories claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad in the provinces of Kirkuk, Nineveh, Diyala, and Salahadin have become a hotbed for the extremists group’s activities.
A major security vacuum exists in these areas, caused by a lack of military coordination and communication between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army since October 2017, when Erbil-Baghdad relations hit an all-time low.
The Kurdish Peshmerga commander considers the formation of a joint operations room between their forces and the Iraqis "important", hoping "we will be able to form it in the future so we can bring the situation under control."
Concerning ISIS activities in the area, he says "the area is wide, something Daesh is interested in so as to martyr locals and inflict harm."
Although the Iraqi government announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in December 2017, remnants of the group have returned to earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, and extorting money from vulnerable rural populations.
By Hardi Mohammed
Translated by Zhelwan Z. Wali
