“Baathist chauvinist mouthpieces” refuse the Peshmerga’s return to Khanaqin, official says

Shafaq News / A local official in Diyala described the parties the Peshmerga forces' return to Khanaqin district as "Baathist chauvinist mouthpieces."

The head of the dissolved Khanaqin District Council, Samir Muhammad Nour, told Shafaq News agency that there is a "chauvinistic nationalist view towards the Kurds in Khanaqin and the disputed areas, as some political parties are seeking with all their government influence to prevent the return of the Peshmerga to Khanaqin and Diyala."

Nour asked about the reasons and obstacles to the return of the Peshmerga to the outskirts of Khanaqin, despite the presence of three brigades in the Green Zone in Baghdad, pointing out, "the army and al-Hashd al-Shaabi have made enormous sacrifices to protect Khanaqin, but they lack security and intelligence awareness of the conditions in the vicinity of Khanaqin, which resisted terrorist groups throughout the presence of the Peshmerga in 2003-2017."

Another official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Khanaqin, who preferred to remain anonymous, described the political parties that reject the return of the Peshmerga as "Baathist."

"The return of the Peshmerga to their sites in Khanaqin means the return of stability to more than 80 threatened villages since October 2017 events", he told Shafaq News agency.

He stressed, "the security file of Khanaqin and its affiliates has become a political card controlled by parties seeking demographic changes and the Arabization of several villages and areas by fueling security unrest."

The Khanaqin district is witnessing a remarkable increase in the rate of security breaches, which became almost daily following October 2017, and the withdrawal of the Peshmerga forces, which were deployed in the area.

The withdrawal of the Peshmerga forces from the Diyala borders in 2017, after the Kurdish independence referendum, caused vast security gaps exploited by ISIS terrorists fleeing from the western governorates and Diyala areas to launch attacks and operations that killed dozens of civilians and security personnel.