The Iraqi army and the Sinjar Resistance Forces (YBŞ) are meeting in Shingal, Ninewa province to reach an agreement after armed clashes between them on Tuesday March 18 where five people were injured and doors of schools were shut for Wednesday March 19.
Three soldiers and two policemen were injured in the clashes that took place at 9 pm on March 18, according to a police source in Shingal.
"The cause of the fighting is still unclear. A person was arrested by the YBŞ and the security forces intervened, but we do not know why he was arrested.”
"Then we announced a curfew from 11 pm to 11 am on Wednesday 19, in order not to escalate the problem ... The situation has now calmed down and is under the control of the security agencies," the source added on the condition of anonymity.
The (YBŞ) were formed in 2015 and operate under the control of the Shingal Democratic Autonomous Administrative Council, which is described as close to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is fighting Turkey and holding territories in Iraq. Formed by locals to manage the war-torn region, neither the Iraqi federal nor the Kurdistan Regional Governments KRG recognized it.
"It is not clear how the fighting took place, but the Iraqi army and the Sinjar Resistance Units are meeting to resolve the issue," Ghazal Rasho, an official of the Sinjar Resistance Units, told KirkukNow.
The fighting in the center of Sinjar comes at a time when the Iraqi Government and the KRG, signed the Sinjar Agreement in October 2020, which stipulates the security file of the district will be reorganized and handed over to the local police.
"The headquarters of the YBŞ forces do exist, but they are not in the city center but outside in the villages. Our forces are to control Sinjar and serve the people. We have no other purpose," Rasho added.
According to Hassan Salih, director of Arabic education in Sinjar, the curfew was imposed for the safety of students.
Shingal, located 120 km west of Mosul, center of Nineveh province, is home to over 100,000 adherents of the Ezidi ethno-religious community, and one of the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil. Ezidis reside in Shekhan, Bashiqa, and other areas in Duhok Northern Province.
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, where eight different armed forces are deployed.
