Yawar told NRT’s Panorama program that Peshmerga officials have always known that ISIS was not entirely defeated and that the group maintained its ability to mobilize for attacks.
“Daesh does not have the ability to control a large area as before,” he said however, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
In the most high-profile incident, three Peshmerga were killed in an ISIS attack in northern Kirkuk on Saturday. Fifteen other Iraqis, mostly members of the security forces were killed in other attacks across the country the same day.
Yawar said that the Peshmerga is not equipped with thermographic cameras, which would help to detect and repel nighttime attacks, adding that many Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) units do not have them either.
He said that an Iraqi military delegation will visit Erbil within the coming days to discuss recent developments, which have at least rhetorically reinvigorated efforts to increase coordination between the Peshmerga and the ISF in the disputed areas.
Less than a month ago, before the recent spate of ISIS attacks, Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs Deputy Chief of Staff Qaraman Kamal complained that the ISF had not implemented an agreement to set up a series of coordination centers, revealing that the two sides had not met about the issue since the autumn.
Regarding the unification and depoliticization of the Peshmerga, Yawar said that the International Coalition is not pressuring officials on the issue, but have advised them to do so.
The Peshmerga is infamously divided between units controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Peshmerga Forces 70 Command is controlled by the PUK. Its KDP counterpart is known as Peshmerga Forces 80 Command.
Some units fall under the control of the KRG’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs, but their commanders often retain partisan affiliations.
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