The mutilated body of a slain civilian was found in Jalawla (Gulala) after a night of armed clashes between gunmen and security forces which led to the killing of one and injuring three.
The gunfight took place on 15 January, at around 21:00 in the Salam neighbourhood of Jalawla subdistrict in Khanaqin district. A number of gunmen attempt to raid the home of an employee of Anti-Crime Directorate Office.
An officer of the Jalawla Police told KirkukNow: “The unknown armed men were wearing military clothing. They knocked on the door of the house of the Anti-Crime Office employee in the Salam neighbourhood. When he opened the door, they told him that they belonged to the Hashd al-Sha’bi [PMF], but the man didn’t believe them.”
The police officer, who wished to remain unnamed, said that a fight broke out after that the gunmen started shooting when the owner of the house tried to prevent them from entering. And that he then started to shoot back.
“When the owner of the house realized that the gunmen were not from Hashd al-Sha’bi, he calls on his relatives and the security forces for help.”
His brother and a friend of his, who live nearby, rushed to his assistance and his brother got shot in the clashes, according to the officer.
Three members of the security forces arrive at the scene later, who “also got shot after running out of bullets, and one of them died of his injuries later at the hospital.”
The gunmen later set fire to the car of one of the inured and fled, the officer said.
The morning after, security forces found the mutilated corpse of an elderly civilian.
A source told KirkukNow that the car of the elderly civilian was also set on fire. “It is suspected that the ISIS militants killed that civilian after the clashes.”
The Salam neighbourhood is located in the eastern outskirts of Jalawla, where the terrain is hilly.
Hilal abdul-Sattar, nephew of one of the injured, told KirkukNow: “My uncle got injured after rushing to help his friend. He was shot right after he arrived at the location of the incident. Injured, he then managed to take shelter in a house.”
Hilal complains that the security forces “did not respond adequately, that’s why the gunmen even managed to set fire to my uncle’s car. This, while there is an Iraqi army base in the neighbourhood only 150 metres away [from the location of the clashes].”
“The clashes continued for nearly three hours. The gunmen fled after forces from the Tribal Hashd, Jalawla Anti-Crime and the National Security,” Hilal added.
ISIS militants took control of Jalawla subdistrict in 2014. By the end of the same year, Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) expelled ISIS and took control. In October 2017 forces from the Federal Government forced Peshmerga out.
