Iraqi Army deploys more troops to enforce ‘state authority’ in Sinjar: Joint Operations Command 

The Iraqi forces accuse the PKK-linked militias of erecting illegal checkpoints and challenging the authority of the state security forces.
Iraqi soldiers stand on a truck ion a base in Sinjar, Iraq, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. (Photo: Ali Abdul Hassan/AP)
Iraqi soldiers stand on a truck ion a base in Sinjar, Iraq, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. (Photo: Ali Abdul Hassan/AP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Army deployed troop reinforcements to the Yezidi-majority town of Sinjar in Nineveh province, the country’s joint operations command confirmed on Thursday. 

These reinforcements are intended to enforce “state authority and law,” the spokesperson for the Iraqi Joint Operations Command Maj. Gen. Tahseen Al-Khafaji told the Iraqi News Agency on Thursday. 

The arrival of these reinforcements follows violent clashes between the Iraqi Army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-affiliated Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) and Yezidi Khan Asayish beginning late Sunday.

Kurdistan 24 first reported the arrival of the Iraqi reinforcements close to the Giruzer subdistrict southwest of Mount Sinjar on Wednesday. 

The Iraqi forces accuse the PKK-linked militias of erecting illegal checkpoints and challenging the authority of the state security forces.

The clashes that began Sunday weren’t the first. However, they were more severe since they displaced nearly 1,000 families, according to figures obtained in the Zakho Independent Administration, which is hosting the majority of the newly displaced. 

The Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province hosted most of the displaced. 

The United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, hailed the “welcoming” stance of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Wednesday. 

Erbil and Baghdad struck a UN-brokered agreement in late 2020 to normalize the situation in Sinjar and remove the various armed groups there and establish a local security force in their place.