Suspected Turkish drone injured three in Shingal: Local media

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A suspected Turkish drone strike on the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) on Monday injured three people, local media affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) reported. 

A drone “struck a vehicle in the town of Shingal and three journalists were injured,” PKK-affiliated Rojnews said. 

“The two men were taken to a hospital in Mosul for treatment and the woman was slightly injured,” it added. 

Neither Ankara nor the PKK have commented on the attack. 

Turkey frequently bombards Shingal, claiming to target fighters and positions of the all-Yazidi Shingal Resistance Units (YBS), considered by Ankara to be an offshoot of the PKK. 

The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state for decades in the struggle for greater Kurdish rights. It is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara. 

The YBS and Ezidkhan Asayish were formed by the PKK after the Islamic State (ISIS) seized control of Shingal, killing and kidnapping thousands of Yazidis in the process. They control parts of Shingal. 

The strike also comes amid a fresh Turkish military operation in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province against alleged PKK positions. In March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that Ankara is close to completing a safe zone that will “permanently” resolve security issues along its border with the Kurdistan Region. 

Turkey has carried out more than 1,076 attacks on the Kurdistan Region and Nineveh province so far in 2024, according to data from Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a US-based human rights organization and conflict monitor tracking Ankara’s operations in the Kurdistan Region.