Kurdish General Dies

The Commander of the Golden Division at the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Services (CTS) has died in the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil due to health complications. Maj. Gen. Fadhil Barwari, the Kurdish commander of the US-trained Golden Division, has passed away due to a heart attack, a source close to his family told Kurdistan 24 on Thursday. His body was transferred to the Department of Forensic Medicine in Erbil. He will then be transferred to his hometown of Duhok for burial.

Born in 1966 in the northern Kurdistan Region city of Duhok, he joined the Peshmerga forces in his late 30s during the resistance against the former Iraqi Ba’ath regime before joining the Iraqi army following the collapse of the dictatorship.

Since 2014, Barwari played a vital role in leading Iraqi forces, particularly in the Golden Division, in the fight against Islamic State (IS) extremists across Iraq.

Brett McGurk, the US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter IS, described the late Kurdish commander as “a legend.” “General Barwari was a heroic fighter and commander in the campaign against IS to whom the world owes a debt of gratitude.”

Article from Kurdistan 24