US ambassador confident Peshmerga to return to post-Mosul offensive locations

(IraqiNews.com) – Erbil- US ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman a said Sunday he was confident that Kurdish Peshmerga forces will return to their earlier locations that preceded their participation in battles to liberate the province of Nineveh.

Making a press statement during his visit to Erbil, which started Sunday, Silliman said said that Kurdish President Masud Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had developed a great deal of “trust” between each other that he was confident Peshmerga forces would retreat from regions that fall to their control since the start of battles against Islamic State militants in Nineveh.

Silliman praised cooperation between the two governments as well as Peshmerga successes in the liberation battles.

Peshmerga’s participation in the fight against ISIS had been based on a mutual understandings between the governments in Baghdad and Erbil. Over the past two years, Peshmerga have liberated tens of border regions in Nineveh from ISIS. Those regions are, however, a source of dispute with Iraq as Kurdistan claims right to them.

Kurdish authorities had recently been under fire from international human rights organizations for demolishing Arab homes in Kirkuk and deporting hundreds of Arab families while keeping Kurds’ homes.