KIRKUK, Iraq
Families of peshmerga hostages, who were captured by Daesh almost two months ago, asked the Iraqi government Thursday to provide information on their relatives.
The 17 peshmerga fighters were taken hostage during ongoing clashes in southern Kirkuk's Maktab Khalid area on Jan. 30.
They were put in cages and were shown in different streets of the town of Halice by the militants. Daesh also announced that the captured fighters would be executed on March 21.
The families gathered in Kirkuk and expressed their fears that the hostages would be killed on the Day of Newroz – a spring festival that falls on March 21 each year and is celebrated mainly by the country's Kurdish population.
Irfan Sheikh, whose son was captured by Daesh, spoke on behalf of the other families and said that neither Kirkuk officials nor the Kurdish Regional Government “provided any information about our sons.”
“We will do unimaginable actions if officials do not respond to us within 24 hours," Sheikh added.
Iraqi forces, backed by Shiite militias and Kurdish forces, have been battling Daesh since June 2014 when the armed group seized Mosul and much of northern and western Iraq.
