ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The names of the five Peshmerga killed in the Islamic State (ISIS) attack in Diyala province on Saturday have been released, with the family of 61-year-old Ismael Mohammed mourning his loss and reflecting upon his life in Sulaimani’s Said Sadiq city on Sunday.
Militants attacked the Peshmerga in the Kolajo sub-district at around 10:15pm, killing five and injuring five other Peshmerga when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb planted by the terrorist group.
Aras Samin, also from Said Sadiq, Ibrahim Baran and Nabard Saeed, both from the town of Arbat near Sulaimani, and Amin Hussein, 33, from the town of Zarayan, near Sulaimani, were all killed in the attack alongside Ismael.
Ibrahim, 40, is survived by four children. On his Facebook account, he marked the anniversary of the death of a Peshmerga colleague seven years ago.
Ismael is survived by five children. In Said Sadiq, his mother mourns her son's death, telling Rudaw that she talked to him the day before he was killed, and had been looking forward to having him at her home the following day.
Nahida Hussein, Ismael’s wife, spoke of the family’s grief. “I’m completely destroyed. He served as a Peshmerga for several years and devoted himself to his nation. We are saddened by what has happened. We are deeply saddened.”
ISIS was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017, but it still operates in the disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad, taking advantage of a security gap to carry out hit-and-run attacks and bombings. In the latest edition of its weekly propaganda magazine al-Nabaa, ISIS claimed it carried out 22 attacks in Iraq, killing and injuring 49 people.
Peshmerga officials have previously blamed ISIS attacks on a lack of coordination between them and Iraqi forces.
Efforts to form joint brigades in the disputed areas began earlier this year, but have stalled. In September, Deputy Peshmerga Minister Sarbast Lazgin said brigades would be formed after Iraq’s October 10 election.
According to the US Pentagon’s latest report on anti-ISIS operations, joint coordination centres established in the disputed areas earlier this year are “not functioning optimally due to a lack of clarity of the roles and responsibilities of the officers assigned to them.”
Omer Tofiq, the sixth Peshmerga who was hospitalized due to his injuries died on Monday.
Updated on November 30, 2021.
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
