SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Islamic State (ISIS) militants are relying on women to secure logistical support for their operatives in the Hamrin mountain range as the group has been regrouping in northern Iraq, Iraqi commanders told Middle East Eye.
Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in December 2017 but the militants have regrouped in the Hamrin mountain range which extends into the northern provinces – an area described by officials as a “triangle of death”.
The area is caught between the jurisdictions of the Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga forces.
Iraqi commanders told Middle East Eye that ISIS militants had increased their activities in the country, including in Baghdad, Saladin, Diyala and Kirkuk.
“We recorded a remarkable increase in the organization’s activities in these areas during the last month, compared to the months preceding it. ISSI carried out three big operations and this is something that cannot be overlooked or ignored,” Middle East Eye quoted a top military commander as saying.
“They still pose a real threat, but their current attacks are aimed only at proving their existence, as the organization is no longer able to hold territory,” the commander added.
The Iraqi commanders further said that the valley of Qouri al-Shay in south of Kirkuk is “one of the most important” supply routes for ISIS, linking the governorates of Kirkuk and Diyala and crossing the Hamrin mountain range.
“These areas are very rugged, uninhabited and difficult to hold, and this is what ISIS detachments use to deliver supplies or transfer them between Kirkuk and Diyala,” Brigadier General Rafi Saeed, who commands the 3rd Brigade of the Rapid Intervention Forces deployed in the area, told the news outlet.
“We have identified this vulnerability. We have carried out several operations in the area, but all operations last for a day or two and end. We have not been issued orders to hold this valley despite the availability of armaments and numbers pf Iraqi armed forces.”
On Friday, ISIS militants carried out two separate attacks against Iraqi forces in Kirkuk governorate, killing a policeman and wounding eight others.
Separately, units of Iraqi agency of intelligence and federal investigation arrested six ISIS members in several areas in Kirkuk, the agency said on Friday.
Regarding the use of women, the Iraqi military field commanders told MEE that ISIS had reactivated its dormant women cells.
Last week, Iraq’s Rapid Response Forces deployed in the Hamrim Mountain range detained five women, according to the news outlet.
“Women were transporting money, messages and food to and from the organization’s hideouts and the families of its fighters,” said Lieutenant Colonel Tariq al-Ghazali, a Rapid Response Forces commander.
“We arrested the five women two days ago, in coordination with the counter-crime department in Sulaiman Bek town where the women live, and they confessed,” he said.
“These women are all housewives and IS relatives, and therefore it is easy to attract and recruit them.”
