Yezidi families return to Iraq’s Sinjar following understandings
ERBIL, KRG, Iraq (North Press) – There is an understanding between the Iraqi army units and the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), deputy leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sinjar (Shingal) District, northern Iraq, Dawood Jundi said on Thursday stressing that the issue is political rather than military.
On May 1, Sinjar District witnessed tension on the back of the deployment of Iraqi military units in different areas especially in the vicinity of Snuny, north of Sinjar Mountain.
The aim of deploying Iraqi military units was to impose military control over the area, remove barriers set up by the YBS, and remove the armed groups, according to a security agreement signed between Baghdad and Erbil in 2020.
The YBS was formed in 2014 to drive out ISIS members from the area after the collapse of the Iraqi army. Since then, it has remained a powerful local force in the area. After that, an autonomous administration was formed to run the affairs of the area.
Jundi said, “The issue in Sinjar is not military, but political.”
“There are external parties behind the tension that took place aiming to empty the area of its Yezidi people,” he added.
“On Wednesday, the leaders of the Iraqi army and the YBS reached a kind of understanding stipulating an end to the escalation that effects only residents of the region,” Jundi noted.
An Iraqi security source in Sinjar said on Wednesday that the situation was settled after days of tension.
Meanwhile, “Leaders of the Iraqi army and YBS negotiated on the recent situation and reached an understanding, contrary to what some are promoting that the region is witnessing an armed conflict,” said Hisso Ibrahim, spokesperson of the Autonomous Administration of Sinjar.
The local official appealed to the Yezidi families, that have recently fled the region due to what he described as over-dramatization by the media, to return and live in safety.
Yezidi families resorted to areas in the KRG due to the recent tension, but the PUK deputy leader pointed out that large numbers of the families began to gradually return.
Also Jundi noted to the stabilization and safety Sinjar (Shingal) is witnessing right now saying that the reality on the ground suggests the contrary, “all of this is for political goals”.
As for Snuny district, which was a hot area days ago, the conditions there are stable, a civilian said.
Gen. Abdel Emir Rashid Yarallah, Chief of the General Staff of the Iraqi Armed Forces, accompanied by military leaders and the army unit deploying in Sinjar inspected the region with the aim to follow-up on the security condition and intelligence efforts, according to a statement by the Iraqi Security Media Cell (ISMC).
“The Iraqi army, presence in Sinjar, aims to preserve safety and security of the citizens,” head of Nineveh Operations command said in statements on Wednesday when speaking of the stabilized conditions there.
Residents of the Yezidi majority Sinjar region, which is located on border with Syria, went through disastrous massacres at hands of the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) in 2014.