ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - One member of the Iraqi army and four others were reportedly injured on Sunday when skirmishes broke out between Iraqi security forces and protestors who were rallying against the recent Turkish airstrikes that targeted the Yazidi heartland of Shingal.
One member of the Iraqi army was injured “while securing protection for protesters condemning the Turkish attack on Iraqi lands,” Iraq’s Security Media Cell said in a statement.
An investigation has been launched into “the shooting incident,” the statement added.
Major General Mohammed Malallah also confirmed the injury of the Iraqi soldier to Rudaw.
Turkish warplanes launched two airstrikes on the town of Khanasor in five days. One commander of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), which was established to protect the Yezidi community in Iraq in 2007, was killed in one of the airstrikes.
Qasim Shasho, head of Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Shingal, told Rudaw that a fight broke out between the YBS and the Iraqi army, adding that three YBS fighters and a member of the Iraqi army were injured.
However, the mayor of Sinune town in Shingal Khudeda Chuke said a female journalist called Nasrin Hussein was also injured. Malallah said Hussein sustained a minor injury and "was hit with a stone" while covering the protests.
The district has been hit by multiple Turkish airstrikes in recent years. Ankara justifies its strikes by claiming Mount Shingal is host to a number of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions and considers YBS to be linked to them. It designates the PKK as a terrorist organization. The YBS played a crucial role in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) after it overran the district in August 2014 and committed genocide against the ethnoreligious minority.
The frequent airstrikes appear to have given more reasons to the hundreds of thousands of displaced Yezidis that fled ISIS seven years ago not to return from camps in the Kurdistan Region to their ancestral homeland. Yazidis displaced from Shingal earlier this year said they were also forced to flee IDP camps in Duhok province due to nearby Turkish bombardments.
The region has been further destabilized due to the presence of a number of armed militias and the dispute between Baghdad and Erbil over who runs the district.
Yazidi activist and co-founder of Sinjar Academy, Murad Ismael, said in a tweet on Sunday what is happening in Sinjar is "very worrying and will negatively affect the general situation, people’s lives, and the recovery from the genocide."
"Everyone bears the responsibility, and there will be a real catastrophe if reason, balance and law are not invoked," he added.
In the first days of the genocide, about 1,300 people were killed and over 6,000 people were abducted, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Office for Rescuing Kidnapped Yazidis. More than 2,000 remain missing.
Additional reporting by Nasir Ali and Srwa Hawramy
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