23 villages in Khanaqin evacuated due to ISIS threats, local official says

Shafaq News/ A Kurdish official in Khanaqin said that the citizens of 23 villages in the district have piled out due to ISIS threats over the past two years.

The media official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Khanaqin, Ibrahim Hasan, said in a statement to Shafaq News Agency that the citizens of 15 villages in Bawa Mahmoud and Alyawa, at the outskirts of Khanaqin, displaced due to ISIS threats since 2017.

He added that the Kurdish residents of eight other villages also moved to other areas for security reasons.

"Everyone agrees that the security deterioration at Khanaqin outskirts is caused by the security gaps left after the withdrawal of the Peshmerga forces in October 2017."

Hasan called for "reviving the joint operations chambers in Khanaqin and other disputed areas, sharing intelligence, and establishing joint forces to terminate ISIS cells in the territory."

PUK official said that implementing Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is the optimal solution for the issue of disputed districts, "annexing those territories to the Kurdistan Region remains with the Iraqi borders. The Kurdistan Region lies within the Iraqi borders."

Since the withdrawal of the Peshmerga forces from the disputed territories in 2017, Khanaqin and other districts became a stronghold of ISIS.

ISIS operatives conduct nearly daily attacks exploiting the security gaps left by the Peshmerga forces.