ISIS are appealing for a ceasefire with Kurdish forces in Iraq, after a succession of battlefield losses to Peshmerga forces, it has been reported.
A Kurdish commander, speaking on condition of anonymity to Kurdish news agency Rudaw, said: “ISIS has requested the Peshmerga to halt their attacks and reach a kind of ceasefire with them.”
A series of Peshmerga victories, US-coalition led air-strikes and the advance of the Iraqi forces and Shia militias, most recently in driving ISIS from Tikrit, have all led to ISIS losing influence and territory and sending messages to Peshmerga forces asking for a truce, he claims.
“ISIS sends messages to the Peshmerga through local chieftains, claiming they will not attack the Peshmerga if the Peshmerga do not fire at them,” the commander said.
However, the commander warns that the Kurds “don’t take such demands seriously. We have experience with them.”
Rudaw reports that Kirkuk Police Chief Sarhad Qadir has said ISIS are “blind snakes” and “it is wrong to negotiate with ISIS.”
Jafar Sheikh Mustafa, a former military commander and minister of Peshmerga, said he is not aware of any request for a truce. Mr Mustafa went on to say that ISIS “has been contained.”
“Peshmerga forces have been able to weaken ISIS during the last few months. They are ousted from Tikrit as well. People and tribal leaders under the control of ISIS frequently contact us and they are willing to put down their weapons,” he said.
Kurdish forces claim they have regained much of the territory lost to ISIS last year, when the Islamic militants made rapid advances towards the major Kurdish cities.
“ISIS has been weakened,” committee head Ari Harsin said.
“We have regained control of 95 percent of the territory that was lost,” he added.
ISIS have recently floated the idea of a truce with Western forces, via an article purportedly written by British captive journalist John Cantlie in the group's English language magazine in recent weeks. In the article the author claims the group are becoming more recognised as a country in their own right among those in the West, before saying: “At some stage, you’re going to have to face the Islamic State as a country, and even consider a truce.”
Thea article goes on to say that when: "Shiite militiamen are afraid of being burnt alive, when special forces operations skyrocket in an effort to make up for what the Iraqi army cannot achieve, and when the mujahedin start beheading Western troops, then every option is going to be on the table, and fast. A truce will be one of those options.”
The article then claims a truce is "the sensible option."
