Kirkuk security officials: ISIS poses no ‘direct’ threat to the city
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    Kirkuk security officials: ISIS poses no ‘direct’ threat to the city

    Kirkuk security officials: ISIS poses no ‘direct’ threat to the city


    Kirkuk military and security officials have said with a degree of confidence that the presence of the ISIS group in Hawija, some 60 kilometers southwest of the city, does not pose a direct threat to Kirkuk after official papers were leaked to the media from the city’s security agencies suggesting that the extremist group plans to attack Kirkuk, and south of the city in Tuz Khurmatu and Daquq. Brigadier Sarhad Qadir, Kirkuk Suburban Police Chief, confirmed the authenticity of the leaked papers exchanged between the city’s security departments, adding that they always receive such assessments of the security situation in the province.

    He downplayed the assessment as he said that ISIS failed to control Kirkuk, even when the militant group was more powerful in 2014. ISIS is in a weak position now, Qadir continued, and therefore does not pose a “direct threat against Kirkuk.” Wasta Rasool, the commander of the Peshmerga operations south of Kirkuk, also denied that ISIS has been preparing for an assault to take control of the oil-rich Kirkuk, a city that has been under the de-facto control of the Peshmerga forces since 2014. He said that although he agrees that the ISIS presence in Hawija remains a threat against Kirkuk, he firmly believes that the extremist group is not in the position to attack the city.

    “Their forces are in ruins, their forces lack morale, their forces are hungry, and their forces do not have weapons. They are a defeated force after [their losses in] Mosul,” Rasool said of his assessment for ISIS militants in Hawija, by far the strongest ISIS holdout in Iraq.

    The Peshmerga commander said that the extremist group made 17 attempts to capture Kirkuk since 2014, but has failed every time. One such attack was the deadly October attacks, believed to have been orchestrated from Hawija, just days after the launch of the Mosul offensive, in which more than 100 ISIS militants launched deadly attacks on multiple locations in and outside Kirkuk killing more than 100 people, many of whom were from the security forces.

    Rasool said it takes ISIS at least two years to regroup and reorganize. He remained confident that the Iraqi and Kurdish forces can liberate the city before this period of time. He called on both the Kurdish President Masoud Barzani and Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi as commander-in-chiefs of the armed forces in Kurdistan and Iraq, respectively, to “accelerate” the plans to put together a joint operation to drive out ISIS in Hawija. The operation to recapture Hawija has been delayed at least six times, Rasool said. He said the morale of Peshmerga has never been so high, and that they are “prepared to deal with any possibilities.”

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    Last edited by pusinsbiz; 07-01-2017 at 04:49 PM.



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