ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A local Peshmerga in Tuz Khurmatu lost a leg in an explosion on Monday in the disputed area of Salahaddin province.
“Due to the detonation of a planted bomb… a Peshmerga [who is a] resident of the city of [Tuz] Khurmatu was severely injured,” the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Peshmerga said in a statement, adding the Kurdish fighter lost one leg in the explosion.
Mohammed Ahmed Ali, the injured Peshmerga, is part of a joint brigade with the Iraqi Army, according to the KRG ministry.
The statement added the explosion occured when an improvised-explosive device (IED) detonated in the Ghara area of Tuz Khurmatu near the road to Kifri.
Tuz Khurmatu, located about 65 kilometers south of Kirkuk city, is a diverse district and town with Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen.
On Sunday in Kirkuk, two suspected ISIS militants wearing explosive vests were surrounded and shot at by security forces, causing their vests to detonate, according to Iraq's interior ministry.
Last week, a security advisor to Salahaddin’s governor confirmed that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is preparing to return to Tuz Khurmatu. Kurdish forces and residents left the district after Iraqi forces retook control following the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum in 2017.
In July, Bakhtyar Mohammed, secretary general of the Peshmerga ministry, told Rudaw of the need for greater coordination between Iraqi and Kurdish forces to secure the security vacuum between Erbil and Baghdad.
ISIS, which rose to power during its 2014 offensive, was territorially defeated in 2017 but continues to launch attacks, bombings, and abductions, particularly in the disputed areas spanning Salahaddin, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Nineveh provinces.
