...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
terror group (ISIS) has carried out 85 attacks in disputed areas claimed by Erbil and Baghdad in the past four months, a top Peshmerga official said on Saturday.
"ISIS (ISIS) activities are on the rise day by day, in which they have carried out 85 terrorist activities in the past four months, killing 70 people and wounding 161 others," Jabar Yawar, chief of staff of the Peshmerga Affairs Ministry, told Rudaw on Saturday.
Yawar told Rudaw English that those killed include Kurdish Peshmerga forces, Iraqi Army soldiers, Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) as well as Iraqi Federal Police members.
The bad boy group kidnapped 41 other people for ransom during the period, he added.
"The bulk of those kidnapped are civilians from affluent families and [are] ambushed in remote areas by the bully boys," Yawar said.
He said that the majority of the attacks were launched in April.
"This is evidence that their activities increase month by month," he added.
According to Yawar, talks with the Iraqi Army to find a solution to fill the security void in large parts of the disputed territories "have not borne fruit".
"We have given them two suggestions; either we protect the security of these areas or we do it jointly with the Iraqi government," the chief of staff said, saying the Iraqi army has turned down both ideas.
"The Iraqi government is neither capable of protecting the security of the disputed areas nor do they let us do it," he added.
Between January 1 and April 15, the ISF carried out 1,060 operations and killed 135 ISIS targets, Iraqi defense ministry spokesperson Yehia Rasool said last week.