After years of isolation.. Baghdad and Kurdistan facing a common enemy

Shafaq News / The mutual political openness and understanding between Erbil and Baghdad has resulted in effective military coordination -for the first time in years- between the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga forces to confront ISIS that has penetrated some areas between the Iraqi provinces and Kurdistan, exploiting the lack of security and the political distance between the two capitals before Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s era.

To reach such a fruitful encounter, each side has taken a step towards the other. From the Iraqi parliament's Kurdish deputies’ support for Al-Kadhimi's candidacy for prime ministership to the political and military delegations that have rolled from Erbil to Baghdad to strengthen coordination and order of interest to the visit of President Nechirvan Barzani in June to Baghdad to meet with Al-Kadhimi, and to agree -according to the official statement issued at the time- on the importance of national cooperation and solidarity to overcome the current challenges, and to agree that the challenges facing Iraq require the cooperation of all to deal with and put the country in the right path, to build a secure and stable Iraq.

Two days later, Kurdistan's prime minister, Masrour Barzani announced on June 22nd that his government was ready to resolve the "radical" differences with Baghdad, which constituted additional support for Al-Kadhimi days after his election.

This political understanding had to begin to appear on the ground, as during the period between the last months of Abdul Mahdi’s government and the formation of Al-Kadhimi’s, the terrorist operations and attacks of ISIS recorded a significant escalation; exploiting the security gap in Kurdistan’s border areas –due to the lack of cooperation between the Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga.

Security statistics and estimates showed that the number of attacks and civilian victims had increased dramatically; in towns, villages, and farms bordering the so-called disputed areas. ISIS militants appear to have taken advantage of the area -which is free of any Iraqi-Peshmerga military presence- that extends 10 kilometers (10 miles) in some areas within the border between Kurdistan and Diyala in the east, Kirkuk and Nineveh in the north.

Therefore, the participation of the Peshmerga forces -following the Iraqi Constitution- to protect the borders of the region in the joint military operation with the federal forces; comes in a logical, natural and indispensable context, the fruit of long weeks of negotiations and coordination between the Iraqi Ministry of Defence and the Peshmerga, to form joint coordination centers to counter ISIS remnants; who attack safe civilians and security forces.

"The Peshmerga forces are within the military and security system in Iraq; and whenever the Iraqi government needs the presence or movement of these forces, they will be present without hesitation", said Dilan Ghafoor, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The Iraqi counter-terrorism services (ICTS) announced on July 13th, high-level security and intelligence coordination between its forces and Peshmerga forces during the fourth phase of the current "Heroes of Iraq" campaign to hunt down ISIS in Diyala.

The first phase of the mentioned campaign began last February –during Abdul Mahdi’s era, after ISIS militants attacks escalated in the area known as “Death triangle”; which is located between Kirkuk, Salah Al-Din in the north and Diyala in the east.

But it is now the first time that the Iraqi army has coordinated with the Peshmerga forces since relations between Erbil and Baghdad soured in 2017 following the Kurdish independence referendum.

ICTS said in a statement to Shafaq News agency that, the fourth phase of “heroes of Iraq” campaign witnessed high intelligence cooperation and security coordination between the forces of ICTS and Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism forces during the hunt for remnants of ISIS in Diyala, pointing out that, “This coordination had resulted from ICTS’s newly adopted strategy, that aims to unify the efforts to monitor, track, and tighten the stranglehold on ISIS”.

It is only obvious to say that without this coordination it would not have produced impressive results, as ISIS has shown remarkable success since their defeat three years ago; infiltrating safe shelters and security gaps, hiding behind the civilians, recruiting young people, and organizing various networks of operations; from surveillance, gathering information and terrorizing the citizens, and carrying out attacks.

It would have been easier for ISIS to redeploy and hide if the border military operations against them were one-sided, as joint action would reduce the withdrawal and hiding areas, and serve as a military pincer to their hiding places.

On Saturday, the Iraqi army announced the launch of "Heroes of Iraq/Phase IV" operations on the border with Iran in areas separating federal forces from the Peshmerga. To underscore the importance of the operation, Al-Kadhimi visited the site of a military operation in Diyala.

"Operations have been launched to hunt down the remnants of terrorism and impose security and stability in Diyala, with the clearance and inspection of the border with Iran, as well as launching special operations within areas that ISIS has exploited to carry out terrorist operations; which are the areas between the federal and Peshmerga forces", said Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Kamel al-Shammari, deputy commander of joint operations, in a statement to Shafaq News Agency.

Al-Shammari stressed that, “these operations were launched under the guidance of the Prime Minister, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and under the supervision of the Joint Operations Command", adding that, "at this stage, they target a large area of 17,685 km and involve forces from (Ground Forces Command, Diyala Operations Command, Salah Al-Din Operations Command, Samarra Operations Command, Federal Police Force Command, Quick Reaction Forces, Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Brigade slot, 8th Brigade Border Forces, Anti-Terrorism Service/2nd Special Operations Command, 2nd Special Operations Regiment from Sulaymaniyah, Diyala Provincial Police Command, and With The Support of Army, Air Force, and International Coalition Aviation).

"The Quick Reaction Forces and PMF entered Mandali and Al-Manthariya Border Crossings and imposed full control on them" the Joint Operations Command said in a statement, noting that "the allocation of elite forces to combat and eliminate corruption, apply the procedures smoothly and by the law, and to impose the prestige of the state".

"While we welcome and support the fourth operation of “Heroes of Iraq” in the outskirts of Khanaqin, Touz, Amerly and the outskirts of Nineveh, the threat of ISIS remains because of the security gap in the disputed areas stretching from Nineveh to Diyala's borders, which are still ISIS elements’ shelters", Diyala Provincial representative Shirko Mirwais told Shafaq News agency.

"Unilateral security operations are useless and need security and intelligence coordination between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army; to end the presence of terrorist hideouts in most of the disputed areas, which are still experiencing security tensions and ongoing terrorist operations" Mirwais said.

In summary, ISIS’s imminent threat to the lives of the citizens in Kurdistan and the rest of the Iraqi provinces requires an attack such as "Heroes of Iraq"; and even to serial operations such as these, as long as they are carried out in high coordination between Erbil and Baghdad as they would yield more important outcomes, and are supposed to serve as a positive model for what the convergence of the two parties can gain from successes, beyond politics, to the economy, security and the livelihood of all components of Iraq.

Though it is also important to pay attention to the inevitable fact that ISIS - despite cutting off many of their external arteries - do not only feed on internal strength, and still derive much of it from its regional surroundings; a factor that Iraqi forces and peshmerga cannot but to take into account in any other joint military action in the future.