Yazidi militia says Iraqi army attacks linked to Turkey’s anti-PKK campaign
The Iraqi army is seeking to dislodge Yazidi fighters from Sinjar who Turkey says are members of the PKK. Thousands of Yazidi civilians are fleeing the area as clashes escalate.
A Yazidi militia known as the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) has accused Iraq’s prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, of colluding with Turkey as Iraqi forces seek to wrest full control of the Yazidi-dominated Sinjar area bordering Syria.
A YBS spokesman said that it was “no coincidence” that the Iraqi army attacked its internal security forces known as the Asayish on April 19 after they refused to evacuate a checkpoint in northern Sinjar. The move came as Turkey launched its operation “Claw Lock” to isolate guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in their strongholds in the mountainous Zap region northwest of Sinjar.
