In recent weeks, the Islamic State group, or ISIS, has stepped up its attacks in northern Iraq; The situation, which indicates the resurgence of the group’s dormant nuclei, has raised concerns about the possibility of a repeat of the situation that has brought large parts of northern Iraq and Syria under its control.
More than 20 people have been killed in ISIL attacks on Peshmerga forces and civilians in northern Iraq over the past week.
One ISIL attack targeted a village in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, killing at least nine Peshmerga forces and three young men from a rural family.
In the latest attack on the night of December 5, four Peshmerga were killed in the Elton Kopri area between Kirkuk and Erbil.
Last week, 6 peshmergas were killed in another attack near the city of Kafri in Sulaimaniyah province.
The attacks took place in areas where there is a security vacuum and a buffer zone between Iraqi central government forces and the KRG, prompting numerous requests from regional leaders to Baghdad officials to fill the gap.
The attacks on the predominantly Kurdish rural areas have led to speculation that the attacks, carried out under the name of ISIS, are in fact Arab racist attacks on the Kurds and are aimed at changing the demographics of these areas.
In the days following the attack on the Kurdish village of Lahiban in Kirkuk province, Kurdish residents were forced to flee their homes, and shortly after leaving, ISIS forces occupied the village and set fire to a number of Kurdish villagers’ homes.
Some analysts in Iraqi Kurdistan also believe that there is a regional conspiracy behind the recent ISIS attacks aimed at weakening the regional government and expelling the Kurds from the disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad, especially in the provinces of Diyala, Salah al-Din, Kirkuk and Ninawa. , Areas that have witnessed ISIL attacks on Kurds and Kurdistan Regional Government forces in recent days.