Armed Kurdish groups want disputed territory back in Iraq
New Kurdish militias are forming from the remnants of defunct ones to renew the fight with the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Units.
The myriad armed groups in Iraq are constantly emerging, merging and dividing. The list is as mutable as everything else in the country. Get ready to add some more names.
Iraqi security sources told Al-Hayat on Dec. 18 that a new group has formed called Khawbakhsh, which is Kurdish for “volunteers.”
The group calls for the "liberation" of Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato from the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which recaptured those areas from Kurdish forces in October. Khawbakhsh has been accused of shelling houses Dec. 5 and targeting federal forces.
This development came in tandem with news about recently formed anti-Shiite armed forces in the areas surrounding Tuz Khormato, numbering about 1,000 and lending credence to forecasts that new armed groups would emerge after the Islamic State was defeated in Iraq.
