SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Kurdistan Region Peshmerga forces on Tuesday swept dozens of villages that have been suspected of Islamic State militant movement in Kirkuk Province according to a statement.
The Ministry of Peshmerga in a statement seen by Esta Media Network said that the Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a terrorist uprooting operation early Tuesday.
The operation was carried out by the 22nd brigade of infantry forces in villages located in the south of Kirkuk province which suspected that Islamic State militants have infiltrated and utilized it as a “route” and “safe house”.
The campaign lasted six hours with attacking the suspected militant’s sites from four different sides, the Ministry said and adding that during August the terrorists martyred two Kurdish residents in the area.
Kirkuk province and its vicinity is part of the disputed territories between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Federal government where a large scale of land plunged into a security vacuum since the Islamic State’s defeat in 2017.
Many terrorists are still operating in the disputed areas and used to build a significant number of hideouts as well as secret tunnels, utilizing to regroup, the area turned into a substantial security threat for both governments in which the terrorists sometimes freely move.
