Sinjar will never be stable if PKK remains there: Official

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Sinjar will not be stable as long as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) retains its presence there, the representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to the Iraqi Armed Forces Command General Abdul-Khaliq Talaat told Kurdistan 24 on Saturday.

“Sinjar will not be stable as long as the PKK and the other outlawed armed militias stay there,” Talaat said. “The Iraqi government must implement its agreement with the KRG over Sinjar to normalize the situation in the Yezidi town.”

General Talaat stated that ISIS attacks continue in the disputed territories between Erbil and Baghdad against the Iraqi Army, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and the Kurdish Peshmerga. 

Regarding the formation of the two joint Peshmerga-Iraqi Army brigades, Talaat revealed that “the process has been frozen under the pretext of waiting for the new Iraqi government to be formed.”

“The process is already finalized, and all that remains is to allocate the budget for the salaries of the two joint brigades,” he added. 

On Monday, two civilians and three Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) members were killed in an ISIS attack on villages south of Kirkuk province, a security source told Kurdistan 24. 

ISIS militants also launched another attack on the PMF south of Mosul, killing seven, Kurdistan 24’s correspondent reported on Monday.

Read More: 12 killed in twin ISIS attacks on Kirkuk and Nineveh provinces

Earlier in the month, the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi Army launched a joint operation in Garmiyan. The combined forces were searching for suspected militants in remote areas of Dawooda between Saladin and Diyala provinces. The operation was launched after ISIS kidnapped Kurdish shepherds.

The lack of cooperation between Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the disputed territories in the past enabled ISIS to use those areas to launch hit-and-run attacks.