Five Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were killed and four others were wounded in a bombing that targeted a military vehicle late Saturday to early Sunday in northern Iraq. The President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, considered the increasing scope of ISIS attacks to be a serious threat to the region. A statement from the Ministry of Peshmerga (the Kurdish defense ministry) indicated that the explosion occurred "late Saturday night," according to "France Press."
The statement clarified that it targeted "a force that was heading to assist following an ISIS attack against the Peshmerga in the town of Jalawla in northern Diyala Province, south of the Kurdistan Region, resulting in the death of five fighters and injuries to four others." The region's president and prime minister condemned the attack.
In his statement, President Nechirvan Barzani emphasized that "the expansion and continuation of ISIS attacks are serious messages that pose a real threat and danger to the region." He called for "increased cooperation and coordination between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army with the support of international coalition forces" to confront ISIS terrorists and their threats.
The Peshmerga form the main military force in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Despite the Iraqi authorities announcing the defeat of ISIS by the end of 2017 after its control over a third of the country's territory, the terrorist group's cells continue to carry out sporadic attacks. The organization claimed responsibility for a bombing that occurred last July in a popular market in the predominantly Shiite city of Sadr City in Baghdad, resulting in the deaths of around 35 people.
