ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Jets struck the all-Yezidi Shingal Protection Units (YBS) militia on Wednesday, killing the YBS' commander, Rudaw has learned.
Commander Zardasht Shingali's death was confirmed to Rudaw reporter Tahsin Qasim by a relative on Wednesday afternoon.
Hawar News Agency (ANHA), a Syrian Kurdish outlet tied to People's Protection Units (YPG) has disclosed the identity of the four YBS militamen, including the commander, killed in the Turkish airstrike.
Shingali's brother Nzar Bapir Murad, known as Sharvan Jilo, was also killed in the strike.
The men were killed after a YBS vehicle was targeted by an unidentified airstrike in Dugure, known in Arabic as Hatein. The strikes took place at 11:35 am, according to the Iraqi Security Media Cell.
Qassim Khalaf, a former member of the Khanasor Local Council told Rudaw English earlier on Wednesday that jets struck a YBS position in the Shingal village of Dugure, north of Mount Shingal at approximately 11:00 am.
According to Tahsin, the strike was conducted by a Turkish jet, leaving a vehicle carrying YBS members destroyed. Locals are anxious and fearful, the reporter added. However, neither the Cell nor Khalaf identified the strike as Turkish.
Turkey has previously conducted airstrikes in the Shingal region, the Yezidi homeland devastated during the war against the Islamic State (ISIS).
The YBS was established in Shingal, reportedly with the assistance of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), a guerrilla organization fighting for greater political and cultural rights for the largely repressed Kurdish minority in Turkey.
Local Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Zaki Shingali was killed in a Turkish airstrike in August 2018. Shingali was a Yezidi and was known to work with the YBS.
Since liberation from ISIS in December 2015, Shingal has been controlled by a variety of armed groups, including the YBS, the Iraqi army, the Peshmerga, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic).
A Twitter account close to the Turkish army claimed 8 members of the YBS were killed.
Updated 8:28am, 16 January
