...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....
(ISIS) holy warriors on Thursday released two people kidnapped last week in the disputed Makhmour district. Security sources said they were released in exchange for a ransom, but the families deny any money was paid. Another four people are still being held by the group.
On Friday, ISIS holy warriors set up a fake checkpoint on the road between Erbil and Makhmour, a town 60 kilometres southwest of the Kurdistan Region capital. At least nine people traveling the route were stopped at the checkpoint and five people disappeared, two Kurds and three Arabs. Another person, an 18-year-old Kurdish shepherd, was also kidnapped by ISIS this week, according to Abdullah Tahir, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) representative in Makhmour. The holy warriors have also killed an Arab driver and blown up a cycle of violence.
Two of the hostages were released early Thursday morning. Families of the men told Rudaw they were freed without payment of a ransom, but security sources said $100,000 was handed over.
Three people were maimed by the holy warriors at the fake checkpoint.
"They were wearing military clothes that’s why we pulled up," one of the injured men, preferring to stay anonymous, told Rudaw on Wednesday, his hand in a cast. "We said salaam u alaikum [peace be upon you]. They answered in Arabic. We knew it was them when they answered in Arabic. They opened our doors and they said get out."
"When they said get out, we hit the gas and fled. Once we did they fired at us... The three of us got injured, but we didn’t pull up until we reached the Asayish checkpoint," he recounted.
A local tribal leader appealed to the government for help.
"We urge the state to look into the matter, because the Arab tribes have been harmed. We want the government to make a decision and have a stance, because we have no support or information about the kidnapped," Bashar Tabur, son of the head of Tabur tribe, told Rudaw on Wednesday.
Makhmour and the nearby Mount Qarachogh are located in an area disputed between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). It has been a safe haven for ISIS sleeper cells because of the security gap between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces, as well as the rugged landscape.