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Iraq
Young people play in Basateen football stadium, located in Shingal’s Pir Zaker neighborhood, on May 3, 2022. Photo: Farhad Barakat/Submitted
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi army said on Tuesday that the situation in the Yazidi heartland of Shingal is “secure” following two days of intense, deadly fighting with a militia group affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which called the environment “calm.”
On April 18, clashes erupted between the Iraqi army and the all-Yazidi, PKK-affiliated Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) when the latter opened fire on an army convoy that did not stop at a checkpoint in the north of the region.
Tensions escalated on Sunday when the Iraqi army attempted to control checkpoints held by the YBS, which connected key sub-districts of Sinune and Khanasur to nearby areas. The clashes led to the death of an Iraqi soldier and a YBS militant.
A top Iraqi military delegation visited Shingal on Tuesday. The Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement later in the day that “Shingal is secure and there is no presence of armed forces,” as reported by state media.
Spokesperson for the Command, Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji, also told state media on Tuesday that the situation in Shingal is "completely stable."
Haso Ibrahim, deputy co-chair of the self-proclaimed Shingal Autonomous Administration, which the YBS is a part of, told Rudaw’s Jafar Mubasher on Tuesday that, “the situation is calm now.”
“People are in a good condition and they are doing their normal work,” he said, adding that it is “normal” that some people were displaced.
At least 701 families, consisting of 4,083 people, have left Shingal and its surrounding areas since Sunday for the Kurdistan Region, mainly Duhok, Hussein Kalari, director general of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) said in a press conference on Tuesday.
This is not the first time the people of the Yazidi-majority town have fled their homes. When the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked the town in 2014, the terror group killed and abducted thousands of people, with thousands of others displaced to the Kurdistan Region, mostly residing in camps in Duhok.
The Iraqi government and the KRG signed an agreement in 2020 to “normalize” the situation in Shingal, which includes the withdrawal of all PKK-affiliated forces in the city. The agreement has been rejected by the PKK and its proxies.
Ibrahim also told Rudaw on Tuesday that Shingal is an Iraqi town and the Iraqi army can be present anywhere there, adding that the YBS is officially part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi) and receives their budget from it.
The Iraqi army claimed on Monday that it had controlled several roads in Shingal which were previously held by the YBS, but Ibrahim said the militia group is currently present in all parts of Shingal and that they run the checkpoints jointly with the army.
Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi MP in Baghdad who represents Shingal, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih late Monday that the Shingal issue is “complicated,” adding that, “The presence of the YBS in Shingal is a political issue and there is a regional agenda behind the presence of these forces.”
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