According to a statement released by the Anti-Terrorist Service in Kurdistan, 2:00 GMT) “A Turkish army drone struck the headquarters of the Sinjar Guards in the village of Chomo Khalaf in the Sinjar district”, resulting in the “killing of three militants” and “injuring three militants” . other”.
This is the second such bombing in the week against the area, as three more militants were killed in strikes attributed to Turkey in Sinjar the Tuesday before last.
It comes ahead of a decisive round of Turkish elections on May 28 between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
The fighters are part of the Sinjar Defense Forces, an armed group of Yazidi militants affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a “terrorist” organization.
Reflecting the complexity of the situation in this region in northern Iraq, where several sides intersect, the Sinjar Defense Forces are also linked to the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces and fought against ISIS until its defeat in 2017.
The Turkish army rarely comments on its operations in Iraq, but regularly conducts ground and air combat operations against the PKK and its positions in the north of the country, whether in the autonomous region of Kurdistan or in the mountainous region of Sinjar.
