Four Peshmerga wounded in ISIL attack in Iraq’s Diyala
ISIL still poses a threat in several provinces in Iraq with hit-and-run attacks, kidnappings, and roadside bombs.
Baghdad, Iraq – Four Peshmerga fighters have been wounded in an attack by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Sunday.
The attack took place in Diyala province on Saturday night.
“Unfortunately we have four injured Peshmerga in a cowardly attack today by ISIS terrorists on a guard post of the fifth infantry Peshmerga brigade in Kalan close to Kolajo sector,” the Peshmerga ministry wrote in a statement. “The Peshmerga responded heavily and everything is under control now.”
After the attack, Nechirvan Barzani, president of the KRG, offered his condolences and called for further regional cooperation to defeat remnants of the armed group.
“The proliferation of ISIL’s atrocities is a new and terrifying message, and brings a serious threat to the region,” Barzani wrote in a statement on Sunday. “There is, therefore, an urgent need for greater cooperation and coordination between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army with the support of the international allied forces.”
Still a threat
ISIL took a swath of land in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Following a series of bloody offensives against it, the group lost its territorial control and was effectively defeated in 2017.
However, having changed its strategies, ISIL still poses a threat in several provinces in Iraq with hit-and-run attacks, kidnappings, and roadside bombs.
Last month, ISIL killed nearly a dozen civilians in an attack in Diyala, stirring up a concerning series of sectarian violence.
The Peshmerga, one of the forces that were central in defeating the group, have recently faced rising confrontations with ISIL.
Two Peshmerga fighters, for example, were killed in an ISIL-staged attack in October in Kirkuk.
