Kirkuk forming special police force to deal with growing security challenges

Kirkuk forming special police force to deal with growing security challenges 

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Two members of Kirkuk security forces in Kirkuk. Photo: Rudaw

KIRKUK – Local authorities in Kirkuk are working on forming a new special police force -- up to 700 strong – to augment security following the deadly ISIS attacks that killed more than 100 people last month, many of them from the security forces.
 
The new force, to number between 500 to 700, is to be formed from existing police officers. 
 
“We have brought together a good number of police officers from the police stations and checkpoints. We will form the new regiment from these police officers,” Afrasyab Kamil Ways, spokesperson for Kirkuk police, told Rudaw.
 
“The decision is that this force will be well-trained, well-armed and in full possession of all equipment needed in every aspect,” he added.
 
He said that, with the formation of the new forces, there will be 75 police officers left at every police station, a number much smaller than at present. He explained that, with the formation of the new regiment, if there are additional police officers, they will be redistributed among the police stations. 

 
Kirkuk police have lost about 3,000 officers in the war on terror since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
 
The Iraqi government is in charge of employing new police officers, but not a single one has been added since 2008. That has left Kirkuk authorities forced to find other ways of dealing with the increasingly challenging task of keeping the city safe from terrorist attacks, in particular from ISIS, which still holds Hawija district, just 55 km southwest of Kirkuk, from which last month’s attack was directed.
 
 
“We had said that it is ok if we have 75 police officers at a police station inside the city (of Kirkuk), because here we have three quick response regiments. There is a big number of forces in the city and there are other (security) institutions, and Asayish,” Brig. Sarhad Qadir, head of the Kirkuk Suburban Police told Rudaw.
 
“But in areas like Sargaran,  Dubis district and Daquq (outside Kirkuk), where there have been terrorist attacks two or three times in the past, a 75-strong force will not be sufficient to protect the area,” he said.
 
The insurgents in last month’s attack, which continued for at least two days in multiple locations in and out of Kirkuk, took advantage of a “security gap” between Daquq and Bashir, south of Kirkuk, the Kurdistan Security Council said in a statement following the attacks. 
 
Due to shortage of security personnel during the attack, authorities in the Kurdistan Region had to deploy some of their security forces and the Peshmerga to repel the attack, and also many civilians took up arms to defend the city.
 
Qadir added that some of the newly-formed regiment will be stationed in Dubis, and this has to be welcomed.