Daesh destroyed 116 villages in Iraq’s Kirkuk: Governor

Ali Mukarrem Garip

KIRKUK, Iraq (AA) – Daesh militants destroyed 116 villages in Iraq's Kirkuk province over a three-year period, its governor told Anadolu Agency late Tuesday.

The terror group destroyed the villages between 2014-2017, said Rakan Saed.

Saed said thousands of villagers are still living in tents near the Kirkuk city center.

He added that Kirkuk's south was the area that Daesh harmed the most in all of Iraq.

Many villages do not have electricity, water, sewage systems and education and health services, Saed said.

"The villagers cannot return to their homes. It seems impossible for residents to return before the infrastructure that was totally destroyed is reconstructed. For reconstruction, definitely there is need of the state's support."

Last October, Iraqi forces captured Kirkuk’s Hawija district, roughly 45 kilometers west of Kirkuk city, which had been considered one of the terrorist group’s last strongholds in northern Iraq.

In recent months, Daesh has suffered a string of major defeats in both Iraq and Syria after overrunning vast swathes of territory in both countries in mid-2014.