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2020-06-03 Iraq
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Fearing ISIS, farmers harvest early in Iraq's disputed territories
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[Rudaw] Farmers in Kirkuk province have started harvesting their crops earlier than usual this year, fearing they cannot be protected from the annual arson committed by Islamic State
 ...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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) murderous Moslems.
Kirkuk lies amid a patchwork of territories over which control has long been disputed between the Iraqi central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. The final status of the ethnically diverse and resource-rich areas surrounding Kirkuk was never permanently settled, leading to a vacuum of uncertainty of who controls them.
Although ISIS was declared defeated after US-backed forces in Syria pummeled its final holdouts in March 2019, the group has continued to launch attacks, including kidnappings, liquidations, and ambushes, particularly in rural areas.
Down but not out, ISIS turbans have gone underground, using a scorched earth policy in areas from which they retreat or where they are defeated. Last year, thousands of acres of wheat and barley fields, in both Syria and Iraq, were scorched by fires during the harvest season, some of which the group grabbed credit for.
The harvest season in Kirkuk usually starts in mid-June and lasts until July, but this year harvesting started on May 20.
Rajab Kakai is an activist in the Kirkuk district of Daquq, home to members of the Kakai religious minority subject to targeted persecution by ISIS for their religious beliefs. He told Rudaw English that farmers in the area have been harvesting crops early in fear of a repeat of the arson they saw in previous summers.
"It's true that many farmers in Daquq and the disputed territories are harvesting their crops earlier this season, fearing the ISIS turbans who set the agricultural land in the area ablaze," Kakai told Rudaw English on Monday.
According to Kakai, farmers in the area have taken collective precautions transcending ethnic lines to prevent the repeat of agricultural arson.
"The majority of Kakai farmers jointly planted their agricultural lands with the Arab farmers to avoid turbans of ISIS groups and other turbans from burning their lands," Rajab said. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2020-06-03 01:49||
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File under: Islamic State
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