03/03/2012 19:07


DIYALA, Marc 3 (AKnews) – Kurdish families in the disputed territories of Diyala and Salahaddin province had found a way to keep their eyes open for possible militant attacks – keeping dogs that would watch their houses and the neighborhoods.

But insurgents seem to have found a bug in the alarm system, as well, in order to disable it – poisoning the dogs. Once the dogs are dead, they can easily carry out their attacks during the night without being noticed.

Sherko Tofiq, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official in Jalawla, Diyala, “extremist groups tend to poison the dogs in the Kurdish neighborhoods in Jalawla so that they do not bark when the militants place bombs there”

He said a number of dogs in the Kurdish populated areas have already been poisoned by the militants.


The militants use poisoned food to kill the dogs instead of using weapons to do so in order to keep it silent, away from their Kurdish owners or the security forces.

A Kurdish citizen in Jalawla who declined to be named for security reasons told AKnews that “this is an expected scenario by the terrorists. A while ago, you wouldn’t stand the smell of rotten dogs that had been poisoned and died in the Kurdish neighborhoods”

Kurdish families in the disputed areas of Diyala province have complained of attacks by insurgents groups and also accuse the Iraqi police in the province of not protecting the Kurdish families.

In August 2011, Kurdish Peshmarga (security) forces were deployed to the disputed areas of Diyala province in response to complaints from Kurds living there saying they are under attack from armed groups of Arab insurgents .

A Kurdish parliamentary delegation to Diyala in August 2011, found that since the end of 2010, some 500 Kurds had been killed in the province by armed groups and over 1,400 families forced into exile fearing for their lives.

According to reports by Kurdish officials in Diyala, the series of bombings across the country, including disputed areas in Kirkuk and Diyala, two weeks ago, caused another wave of displacements for the Kurdish families in Jalawla.

“Since the bombings on February 23, some 170 Kurdish families have left Jalawla and left for either Kalar or Khanaqin districts [mainly Kurdish populated districts] and they are currently living in poor conditions” said KDP’s Jalawla official.

The official said since the fall of the former Iraqi regime in 2003, over 1,300 Kurds had been killed by the insurgent groups in the disputed areas of Diyala and over 1,700 families had been displaced.

By Bryar Mohammed

RY/AKnews