Turkish drone kills a PKK-affiliated commander in Sinjar: Counter terrorism group
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Turkish drone killed a Kurdistan Workers’ Party-affiliated commander in Sinjar on Monday night, the Kurdistan Region’s counter-terrorism group said.
The unmanned aerial vehicle targeted a car in the Sinune subdistrict carrying a number of fighters of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), a PKK-affiliated militant group in the Yezidi-majority town, and resulted in the death of a commander and another member, the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD) said in a statement.
The statement did not elaborate further details on the attack.
Turkey regularly targets vehicles and positions of the militant group in Sinjar and other areas of the Kurdistan Region.
Previous airstrikes in Sinjar have been attributed to Turkey, leading to casualties including senior members of the PKK or the PKK-affiliated YBS.
In 2020, Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement, backed by the UN, to normalize security and administrative affairs in Sinjar.
The agreement, however, has yet to be implemented. The Kurdistan Region officials have repeatedly called on Baghdad to enforce the agreement.
According to the recent US State Department annual report on International Religious Freedom (IRF), the Yezidi people fear returning to their homes in Sinjar because of continuing Turkish airstrikes against the PKK in the town.
Bolstered by its advanced drone industry, Turkey has ramped up its drone strikes in recent years, particularly in the urban centers of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, to target suspected PKK positions.
Kurdistan Region officials regularly call on Baghdad, officially in charge of border security affairs, to prevent the insurgents and foreign militaries from engaging in hostilities within its territory. Officials have voiced concerns about an increasing presence of foreign militia forces in the area.
Much of the conflict has been fought in the border areas of the Kurdistan Region, which has endangered civilian populations.