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Islamic State Deadlier Than COVID-19 in Parts of Iraq

Namo Abdulla

   With the spread of the novel coronavirus in Iraq and a recent spike in
   the number of registered cases, Iraqis have wondered how to compare the
   deadly new threat with a more familiar foe: Islamic State.
   Many Iraqis have in recent weeks found the jihadists to be more lethal
   than COVID-19, particularly in northern provinces disputed between the
   central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government
   (KRG) in Irbil, according to local government officials.
   Iraq announced its first coronavirus case in late February. The
   country's health ministry has since reported 13 deaths from the virus
   in the disputed provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, Saladin and Nineveh.
   The reported killing of civilians and security forces by IS in those
   provinces, however, has reached at least 50 people.
   "Certainty, Daesh is stronger here" said Husham Alhashimi, a
   Baghdad-based terrorism expert with the Center for Global Policy, using
   an Arabic acronym for IS.
   "In some of these areas, there are no security forces, whether from the
   federal government or the peshmerga," he told VOA by phone from Iraq.
   The peshmerga is the military force of the Kurdistan Regional
   Government.

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