Talabani expressed concern that another similar to ISIS group could manifest in Iraq
Lahur Talabani, Director of the Kurdistan Region’s Protection and Information Agency, have said there were signs that ISIS was planning to shelter in the Hamrin Mountains in the northeast of Iraq. “It is a very tough terrain. It is very difficult for the Iraqi military to control” and “It’s a good hideout place and a place they could have access from province to province without getting detected”, he added. Talabani also expressed concern that another group similar to ISIS could manifest in Iraq if political leaders failed to secure reconciliation between sects: “… maybe not Daesh [ISIS], but another group will pop up under a different name, a different scale. We have to be really careful, These next few years will be very difficult for us, politically”. Lastly he have said that Iraqi forces have months of street-to-street and house-to-house fighting ahead of them before the western side of Mosul is regained from the militants.