ISIS clash near Pirdê: fleeing militants take shelter in shop, Kurdish youth Murad Zana killed
A clash between Iraq's Counter Terrorism Service and ISIS militants between Kirkuk and Pirdê left Murad Zana, the young Kurdish owner of a shop where militants had taken refuge, dead. It remains unclear whose fire killed him.
RastinewsA clash between Iraq's Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) and ISIS militants near Pirdê, in Kirkuk province, killed a young Kurdish man named Murad Zana.
According to the CTS account, militants fleeing the fighting ran into the market Zana operated. The exchange of fire between the militants and the security forces continued inside the market, and Zana was killed in the process.
Two suicide-vest militants killed
The Counter Terrorism Service said in a statement Sunday that two ISIS militants wearing explosive belts were killed in the clash between Kirkuk and Pirdê. The service said further details about the operation would be released later.
A security source in Kirkuk said two militants were killed in the clash and two others were captured. The same source said initial reports indicated a Counter Terrorism Service member was wounded, though this has not been officially confirmed.
No official statement has clarified whether Zana was killed by militant fire or by the security forces. Rûdaw described Zana as a Kurdish teenager.
Second civilian death in Kirkuk in 24 hours
A day earlier, a woman was killed near Malha village, also in Kirkuk province. Accounts of that incident conflict.
Iraq's Security Media Cell said the army fired a mortar round at a location where two ISIS suspects were hiding, and that a woman in the area was wounded and later died in hospital. A security source who spoke to Shafaq News said the mortar rounds had instead been fired by ISIS militants.
Details of the Pirdê clash are based on Rûdaw's reporting, citing a security source in Kirkuk, and on the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service's statement.
Pirdê has been a security vacuum since 2017
Pirdê, on the Erbil-Kirkuk road, was taken from the Peshmerga by Iraqi forces and Hashd al-Shaabi following the independence referendum of October 2017.
Since then, the line between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces has become an area where ISIS remnants operate freely. In May 2021, an ISIS attack near Pirdê killed three Peshmerga.
The Kurdistan Region government has repeatedly warned Baghdad and the international coalition that this security vacuum in the disputed territories is allowing ISIS to regroup.