US says PKK has no place on the battlefield

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Commenting on the latest confrontations with an affiliated group of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Shingal region, the US State Department says that the PKK has no place on the battlefield, is a foreign terrorist organization, and that it is the job of Iraqi forces to liberate those areas from ISIS.

 

“We’ve talked a lot about some of the complex battlespaces,” US State Deptartment acting spokesperson Mark Toner said on Monday. “We understand some of the tensions on the ground with respect to, for example, the PKK, that we believe has no place on the battlefield and we consider to be a foreign terrorist organization."

 
Toner added that discussions are being held to address the tensions in that area.
 
“So there’s these ongoing efforts to address some of these tensions, better coordinate in the aftermath of when we liberate these areas or when the Iraqi Government and Iraqi Security Forces liberate these areas. I can say we’re very much aware of it and we’re in discussions on how to best deal with that.” Toner said.
 
On Monday, Special US Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk, US Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman, and Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, commander of the US-led international coalition against the ISIS in Iraq and Syria, met with Kurdish President and Commander of Peshmerga Forces Masoud Barzani.
 
Toner said the United States has been working to de-escalate tensions between all players involved, and the focus should remain on defeating the ISIS group.
 
“I mean, I think we’re always looking about – we’re always talking to – and of course, Brett McGurk was just obviously in the region in the last couple of days, but we’re always in discussions with Turkey, with Iraq, and with all the players in Iraq, including Kurdish forces, about how to de-escalate tensions between these – some of these different groups with the recognition that, again, we don’t want this to escalate in any way, need to keep the focus on what everyone’s main goal should be, which is defeating ISIS,” he said.
 
The General Command of Peshmerga Forces (GCPF) of the Kurdistan Region claimed earlier this month that “PKK fighters in and around Sinjar continue to receive funding from Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces,” a term for the Shiite-majority Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries.

“The Iraqi government pays salaries to fighters organized within the Hashd al-Shaabi forces who are Iraqis. We do not pay to fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or any other foreign party,” Saad Hadithi told Rudaw late in January as he revealed that Baghdad and Erbil had reached an initial agreement to form a joint force to “enforce law and order” in the Yezidi town of Shingal and end the presence of armed groups in the area, without calling any group by name.