Shafaq News/ On Thursday, the Ministry of Peshmerga announced launching an operation at Mount Qarachogh.
"The 18th Infantry Brigade, under the supervision of the 6th Peshmerga sector, carried out a search-clearing operation at the foot of Mount Qarachogh." The Ministry said in a statement.
"The operation was on the border of villages located at the foot of Mount Qarachogh, aimed at clearing the area of ISIS terrorists."
Brig. Gen. Zryan Ismail Khalifa, commander of the 18th Infantry Brigade, said the operations would continue to prevent terrorist movements and dangers.
Mount Qarachogh is located in a security vacuum between Baghdad and Erbil, stretching across several governorates, including Saladin, Kirkuk, and Diyala.
It is worth noting that the security vacuums between the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga are one of the most critical challenges to efforts against ISIS remnants in Iraq, and the voids extend from the Syrian border in the north at Nineveh Governorate through Saladin and Kirkuk governorates, and up to Diyala on the Iranian border.
According to the Geopolitical Monitor, geographically, the area is highly strategic. It forms a strip extending from the Iraq-Syria border to the Iraq-Iran border. This area, which is 100 km long and approximately 37,000 kilometers in size, has significant tracts of arable land. In addition, Kirkuk, an oil-rich governorate, is located in the heart of this region.
The area has no barracks, houses, running water, or electricity.
Moreover, the territory forms a land bridge that links Kurdistan with the other Arab parts of Iraq.
ISIS remnants took advantage of the roughly 20-kilometer (12-mile) vacuum on the line between the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq and federal Iraq to carry out attacks.
The deadly terrorist attacks on both Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and Peshmerga forces prompted Baghdad and Erbil to tackle the problem; current Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held meetings with leaders from the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga, where he asserted that a joint operations room must be set up to facilitate military cooperation and coordination under Joint Coordination Centers (JCC).
While both sides share the goal of defeating ISIS, the joint work is almost suspended.