ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Kurdish Peshmerga officials are demanding increased support from the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), as they received military assistance on Monday from the US, amid the extremist group’s frequent security threats in regions they once held sway.
The Spirit of America, a non-profit humanitarian organization working to support US troops abroad, on Monday dispatched military aid to the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs and two frontlines of the Kurdish forces in Gwer and Makhmour towns, Nineveh province.
“Today’s aid was different. They delivered surveillance cameras, something that I consider very, very important to protect the borders of the Kurdistan Region and the lives of the brave Peshmerga soldiers who stand guard at the frontlines,” Sirwan Barzani, commander of the Makhmour-Gwer frontline, told The New Region, adding that they need further assistance.
“The security of the borders and the protection of the lives of Peshmerga soldiers means the protection of the entire Kurdistan Region,” he said while detailing that the assistance also included “nighttime and daytime thermal binoculars.”
Today’s military support delivery to the Peshmerga came a day after at least three members of a joint Iraqi army-Peshmerga force were killed and two others wounded after their vehicle set off a landmine. Two of the three soldiers killed were Kurds. ISIS claimed responsibility that they had planted the explosives.
The victims were members of Brigade 20. The joint force, which has over 3,700 members, was established by Iraq’s defense ministry and the Peshmerga ministry of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). It has been stationed in the security vacuum between Erbil and Baghdad.
The force is primarily tasked with foiling ISIS plots, draining their resources, and crippling their abilities by using remote areas to regroup and launch attacks on either side.
Security gaps were created in the wake of the Kurdistan Region’s 2017 independence referendum which also was held in the disputed regions. Soon after it was held, Iran-backed Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Iraqi army pushed Kurdish Peshmerga forces out of the area, paving the way for ISIS militants to regroup and build hideouts in the area.
Despite the territorial defeat of ISIS in 2017, Peshmerga forces have stayed at the frontlines, making sure to establish security in the Kurdistan Region amid any possible comeback of the extremist group.
Peshmerga forces have been receiving military support from multiple countries that are members of the US-led global coalition against ISIS.
Amentum, a US defense company that has been in the Kurdistan Region for the past five years, also visited the Peshmerga frontlines on Monday, reiterating their commitment to continue to work with the Kurdish force to establish full security and stability in the Region.
“We are a defense company that here in Kurdistan are providing maintenance and logistics support to the Peshmerga,” Bryan Roberts, Vice President of the Amentum, told The New Region.
Roberts, a retired officer, who spent ten of his 30 years of service in the US Army in Iraq, added that they were also involved in "conducting training classes, teaching the Peshmerga how to maintain their equipment, how to maintain their weapons, and essentially improve the readiness of the Peshmerga forces.”
Roberts added that the Amentum has been in the Kurdistan Region for the past five years.
“The programs are going very, very well,” he said, adding they were planning to “establish two regional logistics hubs, one in Sulaimani and one in Erbil."
Seven years into the territorial defeat of ISIS, the group remains a security threat in Iraq through its remnants.
ISIS controlled large swathes of territory in parts of Iraq and Syria following their rise in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019.
Though they no longer control any territory, they are active in their hit-and-run operations, posing danger to security around the areas they once controlled.
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