“A vehicle on the Halabja-Said Sadiq road on August 3 opened fire near a KSDP checkpoint. The checkpoint’s KSDP Peshmerga pursued them and fired back, and several bullets hit a civilian’s car, but there were no casualties,” a high-ranking KSDP member told Rudaw, on the condition of anonymity.
Security forces responded by setting up a checkpoint near the KSDP’s stronghold of Gulkhana village, the source said, adding that “anyone who had a KSDP Peshmerga identification card was arrested.”
At least nine KSPD Peshmerga have been arrested and are being held in “solitary cells in Halabja,” according to the source.
But the reports were denied by both Halabja’s security directorate and the police.
“We have not arrested anyone and are not aware of this,” security head Amir Burhan told Rudaw, while police spokesperson Akam Qutbuddin also said that “such cases have not been recorded.”
The KSDP, a center-left party with roots in socialist movements, maintains a paramilitary wing of Peshmerga fighters under the direct command of party leader Mohammed Haji Mahmoud. Its forces were active in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), particularly in the Kirkuk area.
