Friday, October 20th., 2017 ISIS Seizes Multiple Villages as Iraqi and Kurdish Forces Are Distracted Fighting Each Other

Friday, October 20th., 2017
October 20, 2017 at 6:00 am

 

Written by Jason Ditz

ISIS Seizes Multiple Villages as Iraqi and Kurdish Forces Are Distracted Fighting Each Other

Analysts: Iraq thinks Kurds are higher priority.

(ANTIWAR.COM) — With Iraq’s military spending the week pushing an offensive against Kurdish Peshmerga fores, ISIS has taken the opportunity to launch an offensive of its own, seizing multiple villages south of Kirkuk, which were no longer defended.

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The area the ISIS forces attacked is near Hawija, a city they held for a long time, and its likely ISIS fighters who fled the city were still in the vicinity, waiting for an opportunity to counter-attack.

The US has been pushing Iraq not to continue its offensive with the Kurds, specifically on the fear that it would distract from fighting ISIS. Analysts, however, say they believe that Iraq’s priority is completely with fighting the Kurds now.
“I don’t think it cares if ISIS pops up here and there as long as it doesn’t threaten non-Kurdish areas,” insisted Michael Pregent from the Hudson Institute. Iraqi officials haven’t commented on the matter, but it does seem their focus remains on pushing against the Kurds.

By Jason Ditz / Republished with permission / ANTIWAR.COM / Report a typo

This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.