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Sinjar clashes (2017)
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Sinjar clashes (2017)
The Sinjar clashes of 3 March 2017 occurred between pro-PKK forces, namely the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ) and the Êzîdxan Women's Units (YJÊ), and the Rojava Peshmerga that serve as the Kurdish National Council's paramilitary wing. After KNC forces entered the town of Khanasor in the Iraqi Sinjar Mountains, fighting boke out among unclear circumstances, resulting in dozens of casualties.
The clashes have widely been seen as symptomatic for the high tensions among the forces that fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) around Sinjar, and the risk that these tensions could escalate into turf wars, which would degrade any attempts to drive the extremist group from the region for good.
When ISIL invaded the Sinjar Mountains in 2014 and began to massacre its Yezidi population, the PKK intervened with hundreds of fighters in order to save the locals from the Islamic State militants. Since then, the PKK set up two local Yezidi self-defense groups, namely the Sinjar Resistance Units and the Êzîdxan Women's Units. In late 2015, anti-ISIL forces finally succeeded in driving the Islamic State mostly from the Sinjar area, but the PKK fighters have since refused to leave and continue to train and equip the local PKK-affiliated militias. This has caused resentment among the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which regards Sinjar as part of Iraqi Kurdistan and sees the PKK as local political rival.
The KDP believes that the presence of the PKK in Sinjar is illegal, and that their own Peshmerga forces are the only legitimate security force of the area. The Rojava Peshmerga are Syrian Kurdish fighters affiliated with the KNC, which in turn was set up by the KDP, and effectively operate as part of the KDP's regular armed forces.
On 2 March, the Rojava Peshmerga stated that they would relocate to the Syrian border near al-Hawl in order to stop smuggling operations, but as they moved further south into the Sinjar Mountains, they came into conflict with the Sinjar Resistance Units at Khanasor. The KNC forces later claimed that they had been blocked by the YBŞ while simply passing through the area, while the YBŞ in turn argued that the Rojava Peshmerga had attempted to occupy Khanasor on the orders of Turkey and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
On the next morning, heavy fighting broke out in Khanasor. Both sides later accused each other of having initiated the battle: Whereas the YBŞ said that they had peacefully asked the KNC fighters to leave the town, whereupon the latter attacked them with heavy weapons, the Rojava Peshmerga stated that they were first shot at and decided to take a stand rather than simply retreat. In any case, heavy clashes broke out, during which several fighters were killed or wounded, and several civilians also became casualties.
On 4 March, a ceasefire had come into effect, with PKK-affiliated groups and the KNC negotiating a solution of the conflict, though pro-PKK media claimed that the peshmerga prepared a new attack on Khanasor.
Pro-PKK media claimed that the fighting was the result of a Turkish attempt to "turn the Southern Kurdistan territory into a battle field, starting from Shingal, and thus to invade this territory". According to this view, the Rojava Peshmerga were proxies of the Turkish MIT, hostile to both the PKK as well as the Yezidis. The YBŞ also claimed that they enjoyed the full support of the local population, and PKK-supporting locals as well as some Yezidi refugees in Al-Malikiyah indeed protested against the invervention of the Rojava Peshmerga and said that the pro-PKK forces had every right to defend themselves from the Peshmerga attacks. In Rojava, the Kurdish youth group Ciwanen Soresger, which is close to the PKK-allied Democratic Union Party, attacked KNC offices in Al-Darbasiyah and Qamishli in protest of the Sinjar clashes.
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Sinjar clashes (2017)
The Sinjar clashes of 3 March 2017 occurred between pro-PKK forces, namely the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ) and the Êzîdxan Women's Units (YJÊ), and the Rojava Peshmerga that serve as the Kurdish National Council's paramilitary wing. After KNC forces entered the town of Khanasor in the Iraqi Sinjar Mountains, fighting boke out among unclear circumstances, resulting in dozens of casualties.
The clashes have widely been seen as symptomatic for the high tensions among the forces that fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) around Sinjar, and the risk that these tensions could escalate into turf wars, which would degrade any attempts to drive the extremist group from the region for good.
When ISIL invaded the Sinjar Mountains in 2014 and began to massacre its Yezidi population, the PKK intervened with hundreds of fighters in order to save the locals from the Islamic State militants. Since then, the PKK set up two local Yezidi self-defense groups, namely the Sinjar Resistance Units and the Êzîdxan Women's Units. In late 2015, anti-ISIL forces finally succeeded in driving the Islamic State mostly from the Sinjar area, but the PKK fighters have since refused to leave and continue to train and equip the local PKK-affiliated militias. This has caused resentment among the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which regards Sinjar as part of Iraqi Kurdistan and sees the PKK as local political rival.
The KDP believes that the presence of the PKK in Sinjar is illegal, and that their own Peshmerga forces are the only legitimate security force of the area. The Rojava Peshmerga are Syrian Kurdish fighters affiliated with the KNC, which in turn was set up by the KDP, and effectively operate as part of the KDP's regular armed forces.
On 2 March, the Rojava Peshmerga stated that they would relocate to the Syrian border near al-Hawl in order to stop smuggling operations, but as they moved further south into the Sinjar Mountains, they came into conflict with the Sinjar Resistance Units at Khanasor. The KNC forces later claimed that they had been blocked by the YBŞ while simply passing through the area, while the YBŞ in turn argued that the Rojava Peshmerga had attempted to occupy Khanasor on the orders of Turkey and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
On the next morning, heavy fighting broke out in Khanasor. Both sides later accused each other of having initiated the battle: Whereas the YBŞ said that they had peacefully asked the KNC fighters to leave the town, whereupon the latter attacked them with heavy weapons, the Rojava Peshmerga stated that they were first shot at and decided to take a stand rather than simply retreat. In any case, heavy clashes broke out, during which several fighters were killed or wounded, and several civilians also became casualties.
On 4 March, a ceasefire had come into effect, with PKK-affiliated groups and the KNC negotiating a solution of the conflict, though pro-PKK media claimed that the peshmerga prepared a new attack on Khanasor.
Pro-PKK media claimed that the fighting was the result of a Turkish attempt to "turn the Southern Kurdistan territory into a battle field, starting from Shingal, and thus to invade this territory". According to this view, the Rojava Peshmerga were proxies of the Turkish MIT, hostile to both the PKK as well as the Yezidis. The YBŞ also claimed that they enjoyed the full support of the local population, and PKK-supporting locals as well as some Yezidi refugees in Al-Malikiyah indeed protested against the invervention of the Rojava Peshmerga and said that the pro-PKK forces had every right to defend themselves from the Peshmerga attacks. In Rojava, the Kurdish youth group Ciwanen Soresger, which is close to the PKK-allied Democratic Union Party, attacked KNC offices in Al-Darbasiyah and Qamishli in protest of the Sinjar clashes.
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