PKK to withdraw from Shingal: Top commander

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was to pull back its armed units from the Ezidi-majority town of Shingal which has become a focal point of an intra-Kurdish strife since its liberation from the Islamic State (IS) group.

The announcement came from the commander-in-chief of PKK's armed wing People's Defence Forces (HPG) Murat Karayilan in a Thursday-aired interview with Sterk TV.

"We have already told them [Kurdistan Region officials] that we will withdraw the HPG forces after this controversy between us ends," said Karayilan without giving a timeline for the process.

Karayilan was commenting on Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani's last week suggestion of using force if necessary to oust the PKK from Shingal, near the border with Syrian Kurdistan.

The PKK chief called for strengthening dialogue which he said was already taking place as meetings to shun a repeat of the 1990s' "birakujî," Kurdish word for fratricide or civil war in political language.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)-led KRG, the United States, and Turkey all object to PKK's taking a permanent foothold in Shingal where it in mid-2014 came to help fend off an IS campaign on Ezidi and other minority populations.

Turkey's rulers have even threatened an invasion in case of continued PKK presence in the area which they named as a "second Qandil," referring to the mountain range where the group fighting Turkish troops has its main bases.

Leaders of Kurdish opposition parties including the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party, the Kurdistan Communist Party and the Kurdistan Islamic Union on Thursday told Kurdistan24 TV that they were ready to negotiate between the KDP and PKK.

Editing by Ava Homa