ISIS kidnaps Kurdish shepherd in Diyala

A Kurdish shepherd was kidnapped by suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members in northern Diyala province on Monday, a local security official told Rudaw, with the site of the kidnapping situated in a security gap.

“ISIS militants abducted a shepherd in Narin village because no security forces are present in the area,” local security head Shamal Abdulrahman told Rudaw’s Hunar Hamid. The village is located close to the town of Qara Tapa.

Wali Rostam, a village resident and the abductee’s cousin, said that this is the third kidnapping the village since 2019 and that they previously had to pay ISIS militants a fee of $57,500 in exchange for an abductee’s freedom.

Rostam added that they expect ISIS fighters to contact them in the evening to demand a price for the shepherd’s release.

An ISIS attack on a group of shepherds in Kirkuk late last month killed one civilian and injured another.

Earlier in August, five Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ISIS attack in Diyala.

ISIS seized control of large swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.

The militants have taken shelter in a security vacuum in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, stretching across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.

Iraqi army and Peshmerga have formed joint brigades to fight ISIS in the disputed territories, but government formation turmoil has prevented their work from materializing.

Although joint brigades have not been formed, Kurdish and Iraqi forces launch operations targeting ISIS remnants in the disputed areas. The forces launched the seventh phase of an expansive operation dubbed Solid Will on Saturday.

Peshmerga officials have blamed the deadly ISIS attacks on a lack of coordination between them and Iraqi forces in the disputed areas.

Source: Rudaw