La Task Force 44 yesterday in Kirkuk in Iraq ran into a rudimentary device known as IED during a street patrol. 5 the injured of which 3 severe, suffered damage to the lower limbs and to one it was necessary to amputate part of the leg. The attack took place near the November 12, when the attack on the Italian base took place Nasiriyah.
"At the moment we do not have the elements to state whether the device was there to hit our military or to say that there is a connection with the Nassyrya massacre. - told Sky TG24 theAdmiral Fabio Agostini, spokesman for the Defense Staff - The soldiers were transferred to Baghdad, they are not in danger of life but have suffered major trauma. A soldier had his leg above the knee amputated due to another internal trauma with bleeding. For another, however, less important traumas. There are also two navy soldiers, one of whom has had part of the foot removed while the other has several fractures in the lower limbs. The conditions of all the military are stable but are clearly very serious".
Kirkuk is one of the last strongholds of what remains of ISIS in Iraq and our soldiers, inserted into the international force, are deployed in that area to train Kurdish Iraqi and Pashmerga soldiers. Lorenzo Cremonesi writes in the Corriere della Sera, the first track that comes to mind to identify those responsible is ISIS. Some pockets of diehards of the self-proclaimed Islamic State three days ago with 17 Katiuscia rockets, from the urban part of Mosul, had hit a base also near Mosul, where Italy has set up a hospital and where some contingents of forces are also positioned Iraqi specials with American instructors. Luck wanted throws to be inaccurate, no casualties recorded in the field. Maybe a warning?
Always Cremonesi tries to provide an explanation. With the outbreak of popular uprisings across the country against the government of Prime Minister Adel Abdui Mahdi, Iraqi security forces are forced to abandon anti-ISIS surveillance to control squares. The cells of the Caliphate have so much time and freedom to re-emerge.
The people took to the streets asking for bread, work, but above all they denounced the rampant corruption in the apparatus of the State and they would like the replacement of the political class. A movement that increasingly resembles the architect of riots in Lebanon.
The dead of the riots exceed 300 people, thousands are injured. Large cities, especially in the center-south, are paralyzed. An ideal condition for ISIS which would be riding the Sunni protest (the deposed Saddam Hussein was a Sunni) against the state apparatuses dominated by the Shiite majority.
Mosul
Mosul is disputed over the oil areas. It is no coincidence that President Erdogan is championing the Turkmen minority to regain influence over the region. But, in particular, it was Saddam Hussein in the 1991s and 2003s who waged war on the Kurds by forcibly relocating hundreds of thousands of Sunni Arabs to Kirkuk, driving the Kurds north of the governorate away. However, after the conflicts of 2014 and especially of 15, the Kurds took control of Kirkuk and the wells. Advantage that they reinforced after their intervention, guaranteed by the Americans, against the victorious ISIS in Mosul in June 2017. But the Kurdish choice to hold a referendum for total independence from Baghdad on September XNUMX, XNUMX was the classic step longer than the leg. The Iraqi army reacted harshly, shooting Kirkuk with arms, the Kurds were divided among themselves and were internationally criticized even by the most loyal allies, including Italy.