PKK responsible for Turkish airstrikes in Shingal: Peshmerga Ministry

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Peshmerga announced it held the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) responsible for Turkish airstrikes in Sinjar (Shingal), calling on the group to withdraw from the area.

Halgurd Hikmat, the spokesperson for the Peshmerga Ministry, announced Turkish airstrikes in the Shingal area in the early hours of Tuesday, April 25, killed five Peshmerga soldiers and wounded nine others, as well as causing extensive damage to the area.

He described the shelling of Peshmerga by Turkish warplanes as "unacceptable."

"We declare the presence of PKK in the area as responsible for these problems, having created many issues for the people of the Kurdistan Region," the statement continued. "They [PKK] have been requested by all to leave Shingal Mountain, and refused to do so to this day."

"Again, we call upon the PKK forces to withdraw from Shingal Mountain and surrounding areas, and to put an end to destabilizing and escalating tensions in the region," Hikmat added, asking the group to allow people to return home and start their lives anew.

The presence of PKK-armed groups in Shingal emerged in August 2014 after the Islamic State (IS) took over the city. The PKK formed a new battalion in the area named the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS).

The group claims it was founded by Kurdish Ezidis from Shingal, with no relation or ties to the PKK. However, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) sees the group as an armed branch of the PKK in the area.

After Peshmerga forces, with the support of US-led coalition warplanes, liberated Shingal from IS, the KRG and Ezidi leadership repeatedly called on the PKK and its armed groups to withdraw from Shingal. The group rejected the plea and remains in the area.

Turkey has in the past repeatedly mentioned it will not allow for the establishment of bases by the PKK on Shingal Mountain, which it likened to a "second Qandil".  The Qandil Mountain has been used as a stronghold and sanctuary by the PKK for over a decade.

Edited by G. H. Renaud