Two members of a group affiliated to Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, were killed and three were injured in an air strike by Turkish warplanes on Sunday ahead of Iraqi PM’s trip to the province scheduled on Monday afternoon, local security official said.
The bombing took place on Monday, 11 am, when Turkish jets targeted a vehicle of Shingal Protection Units YBSh, a group linked to PKK, fighting the Turkish government and holding territories north of Iraq, in the old Bazaar of Shingal district.
“Turkish warplanes bombed a vehicle of YBSh in Shingal Bazaar, two of the passengers were killed and three others were injured,” said Naqtiq Alo Ahmed, media officer of Shingal police.
YBSh fighters are mainly Ezidis and close to the PKK. When Shingal fell under control of Islamic State ISIS in August 2014, Iraqi troops backed by Kurdish Peshmarga (fighters) and pro- PKK fighters' ousted ISIS in October 2015 and deployed in several areas in the region.
In the Ezidi-dominant region of Shingal, only three thousand square kilometers, Baghdad federal and Erbil regional governments compete to establish their rule: three local administrations want to administer the district, and eight different armed forces are deployed.
The militant groups are Iran-backed Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces PMF, YBSh and Ezidkhan Asayish which are pro-PKK, federal and local Police, Iraqi army and the Kurdistan Regional Government's KRG Peshmerga.
The Turkish airstrike follows Iraqi PM Mustafa Kadhimi’s visit to Mosul early in the morning of Monday where he held a cabinet session and visited Mosul dam. He was planning an afternoon visit to the district of Shingal and the village of Kojo.
The complex texture of the security and administrative situation in Shingal is an aftermath of ISIS reign In the Ezidi-dominant region of Shingal, only three thousand square km, Baghdad federal and Erbil regional governments compete to establish their rule: three local administrations want to administer the district, and eight different military and security forces are deployed, some loyal to Baghdad, others to Erbil.
In October 2020, the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG signed the Shingal Agreement aimed to reorganize the security and administrative dossiers in the district, under which local police, national security and intelligence run the security of the town, while the Iraqi army forces would be deployed in the suburbs.
When Shingal fell under reign of Islamic State ISIS in August 2014, Iraqi troops backed by Kurdish Peshmerga (fighters) and pro- PKK fighters' ousted ISIS in October 2015 and deployed in the region.
Shingal, located 120 west of Mosul, center of Nineveh province, on the border of Iraq-Syria, is home to the Ezidi religious community considered by the so-called Islamic State ISIS infidels.
