ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Saturday renewed a call for the establishment of a joint armed force made up of Peshmerga and federal Iraqi army in disputed areas, following an Islamic State (ISIS) group attack on Kurdish forces in western Kirkuk overnight.

ISIS fighters attacked Peshmerga positions close to the village of Qaya Bashi, near the town of Prde (Altun Kupri), thirty minutes past midnight on Saturday. Peshmerga repelled the attack, which took place on the Kirkuk-Erbil road, but three of its fighters were killed and two injured.

President Barzani said in a statement hours later that they have warned Iraqi government and the global coalition “several times” about ISIS regrouping and exploiting the security gap between Peshmerga and Iraqi army in disputed areas. He renewed his previous call for the establishment of a joint body between both forces.

“Once again, we call on [Iraqi] parliament, the federal government of Iraq and the global coalition against Daesh [ISIS] to smoothly work on the establishment of a joint force between the Peshmerga and Iraqi army in the disputed areas so that these areas are no longer used as a corridor for the movement of terrorists by Daesh,” said Barzani. “This poses a great danger to the Kurdistan Region and the whole of Iraq.”

The President also stated that Kurdistan Region “is ready for all sorts of support for the quick establishment of this partnership and coordination.”

ISIS seized control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territories in 2014. Although the group was territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017, sleeper cells have taken shelter in disputed territories where a security vacuum, void of either Iraqi federal forces or Kurdish Peshmerga, exists.

ISIS militants ambush, kidnap and extort both civilians and members of the security forces in the disputed territories, which stretch across several provinces, including Kirkuk, Nineveh, Diyala and Salahaddin

The Peshmerga ministry supported Barzani's call in a statement, saying these areas need the establishment of a joint force.

Some rugged and unpopulated areas do not have the presence of either Peshmerga or Iraqi army, allowing space for ISIS to regroup their ranks and launch attacks against both forces.

Political and military delegations from Erbil and Baghdad have held scores of meetings to curb the movements of ISIS in the disputed areas but have not reached any concrete results.

Rudaw