On April 18, clashes erupted between the Iraqi army and the all-Yazidi, PKK-affiliated 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.
Khal Ali, commander of the Lalish PMF regiment, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih on Tuesday that the clashes began due to a misunderstanding between the PMF and the Iraqi army over leaving or staying on a site, noting that both sides are responsible for the recent engagement, which “should have never reached that level.”
Ali added that he believes the YBS’ affiliation with the PKK is harmful for them, and has a negative impact, adding that the PKK does not “trouble itself” with the YBS.
“They must escape that ideology,” Ali said. “It is a negative point and a delusion that the YBS has created for themselves.”
“Abdullah Ocalan does not trouble himself with them [YBS], yet they raise his pictures [in support]. The PKK has thousands of armed members and has been fighting since the 1990s, and has never troubled itself with them,” he added, referring to the PKK's long-time incarcerated PKK leader.
According to the 2020 Shingal agreement between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), security for the troubled region is Baghdad's responsibility. The federal government is to establish a new armed force recruited from the local population and expel all militias, although the agreement has been rejected by the PKK and its proxies, and criticised by members of the Yazidi community for their lack of involvement in the agreement.
Ali said that the Nineveh Operations Command and the PMF leadership have confirmed that the YBS was an Iraqi armed force and a regiment of the PMF, and that while according to the 2020 agreement all armed forces must leave the area leaving nothing but the local police and national security officials, the YBS have an Asayish office which remains active under the permission of the government.
The Iraqi army said on Tuesday that the situation in the Yazidi heartland of Shingal is “secure," and the deputy co-chair of the self-proclaimed Shingal Autonomous Administration, which the YBS is a part of, told Rudaw that “the situation is calm now.”
