Hundreds of IS militants, including senior leaders, were able to bribe their way to freedom, Iraqi commanders claim
?IS fighters have escaped Hawija via Peshmerga positions and [before the Hawija battle began] the Peshmerga received 160 IS leaders,? said Mahdi Taki, commander of the Hashd al-Shaabi?s 52 Brigade.
?We are getting this information directly from our Peshmerga contacts. There are some bad Peshmerga who love money more than patriotism, and they are taking bribes from IS.?
?According to our intelligence sources, we estimate that in total 3,000 IS ? including leaders, fighters and families have gone to the Peshmerga from Tal Afar, Hawija and the surrounding areas,? said another Hashd al-Shaabi commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.
?IS leaders and fighters are mainly going to Erbil, and IS families have mainly relocated to Kirkuk, all pretending to be normal civilians.?
?The Peshmerga has opened their front-lines to accept IS running from here,? said commander of the Hashd al-Shaabi?s Imam Ali Brigade, Sheikh Kareem Harkani, after the liberation of Hawija.
?It was the Peshmerga who gave IS to Iraq in the beginning, with most of them coming here from Turkey via Dohuk, so they?re leaving the same way they entered.?
?It was Kurdish oil trucks that came here under IS and drove the oil to Turkey. Civilians who stayed here told us exactly what was happening.?
?We know they are not being taken prisoner, so maybe they will fight against us with the Peshmerga in the future,? he said.
?Those Daesh who have gone inside Kirkuk, in the future, will surely turn against the Kurds,? he said, reiterating that the Kurds stood only to lose from any partnership with IS.
?We are getting this information directly from our Peshmerga contacts. There are some bad Peshmerga who love money more than patriotism, and they are taking bribes from IS.?
