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Kirkuk
- The Peshmerga repelled two ISIS (Da’esh) attacks on Thursday and Friday near Pirde (Altun Kopri) and the Qara Chokh mountains in Erbil Governorate’s Makhmur District. One Peshmerga was wounded during the fighting. Further, on May 10, security forces in Kirkuk announced the arrest of a Da’esh cell in the Hawija district, including two female terrorists.
- The Kurds lost another security position as the Iraqi Interior Ministry replaced a Kurdish commander of government building protection with a non-Kurd. The position was given to a Christian officer. The Kurds have lost more than 120 administrative and security posts since October 16, 2017.
- Kirkuk’s Emergency Police announced the arrest of a criminal group responsible for human trafficking and drug dealing. According to police, the group which was arrested near Panja Ali had kidnapped women for prostitution. A kidnapped female was freed during the raid, and some drugs were confiscated.
- The Integrity Commission in Kirkuk announced the arrest of a “woman official” for receiving 20,000 US dollars as a bribe from a property management company in return for lower tax rates. Separately, the acting governor of Kirkuk, Rakan al Jabouri, deprived the Kurdish teachers hired by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of receiving land from the government. Due to ignoring Kurdish studies, the KRG hired hundreds of Kurdish teachers since 2003 for Kurdish schools in Kirkuk.
- The director of Water Resources in Kirkuk, Zaki Karim, said that water levels have decreased to a “dangerous” level,dropping 70%. Karim said groundwater decreased by 50% due to drought and fishing farms using well water in the last three decades.
Khanaqin
- Da’esh attacked a police checkpoint from two fronts near Jalawla on Sunday, May 8. As a result, a police officer was killed, and three others were wounded. Further, Khanaqin police announced the arrest of three people, part of a group in charge of US dollar counterfeiting. The police said they confiscated 100,000 counterfeit US dollars.
Tuz Khurmatu
- Two Iraqi soldiers were injured by the Da’esh attack on their checkpoint near the Pirahmad village last Thursday. Additionally, Da’esh terrorists shelled the Iraqi army near the Abodi village, killing a soldier and injuring three others. Meanwhile, the terror group released a Kurdish shepherd for 30,000 US dollars ransom, kidnapped in late April.
Makhmour
- The Iraqi National Security hired 45 new personnel to its ranks in Makhmour, but Kurds were excluded from the hiring process. All new employees are Arabs, including some from Nineveh province.
- The US-led coalition conducted new airstrikes against Da’esh positions in the Qara Choch mountains. According to an Iraqi security cell, the air raid resulted in the neutralization of seven Da’esh terrorists.
Shingal (Sinjar)
- The number of displaced Yazidis reached 10,000 as tension remains high between the Iraqi army and the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) despite a truce. On Saturday, May 7, hundreds of the Yazidi residents protested the recent battles and called for an immediate stop. The protests also called for all the security forces aside from local police, to leave the town and its subdistricts. Meanwhile, Iraq’s prime minister Mustafa al Kadhimi told senior Yazidi religious leaders and public figures that the Sinjar Agreement “aims for the Iraqi state to remain as the only existence present there.”
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