ERBIL, Kurdistan Region-- The Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) forces based in the Yezidi town of Shingal should leave the area as their presence in the city has had complicating impacts on the return of refugees and the reconciliation process, said a US state department spokesman Thursday.
John Kirby also appealed to "all groups" involved in Shingal to work for national reconciliation and facilitate the return of Yezidis to their communities.
"We continue to believe that the PKK, which is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, should have no role in Sinjar (Shingal), and we regard their presence there as a major obstacle to a reconciliation and to the return of internally displaced people," Kirby said at a news meeting at the state department Thursday.
"We urge all groups, including the KRG, to facilitate political reconciliation so that these internally displaced people can return and the traumatized communities in that region can rebuild. We also urge continued close cooperation between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to defeat Daesh and to resolve any other outstanding issues between them," he added.
It has been difficult to know with any certainty how many PKK troops are still based inside the war-torn Yezidi region, near the Syrian border. But Kurdish estimates have in the past put the number below 1000 guerrillas, still a significant number considering the entire PKK troop in Iraq's Kurdistan which is around 5,000 fighters.
Iraq's Kurdish leaders have raised concern over PKK's long-term presence in the area and are uneasy at the prospect of Shingal becoming PKK's second holdout in Kurdistan Region after the group turned Qandil Mountain near Turkey's border into a de facto safe heaven with little KRG interference.
"The presence of PKK in Shingal leads to instability and one of the reason Shingal has not recovered is their bases in the city. People are not sure about their future which is why they don't choose to return to their areas. The PKK must understand that and leave the area for the sake of the people of these areas," said KRG Prime Minister earlier on Thursday.
PKK has said it will withdraw troops from the Yezidi region after ISIS is defeated and stability is returned to the bordering areas with Syria.
