Peshmerga able to remove ISIS from remaining areas in Shingal region, says ex-army chief

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Veteran Peshmerga and Former Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army Babakir Zebari says the Peshmerga forces stationed in Shingal are capable of routing ISIS from remaining small pockets of land in the region and that they do not need help from anyone.

Zebari referred to fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or their affiliate groups based in the area who have expressed willingness for participation in any future offensive against ISIS in the region.

“If the Peshmerga needs them [PKK], then they will undoubtedly cooperate with the PKK, but the existing force there is able to liberate areas still held by ISIS in the Shingal region as we saw them in the first phase of the Mosul operation liberating many areas in Khazir and other areas,” Zebari told Rudaw.
 
Zebari maintained that most Kurdish areas in the Nineveh provinces have been liberated in the last two years except some small areas near Shingal in the remote areas west of Mosul.

The former Iraqi chief of staff said that the region’s open plains difficult terrain for the new kind of warfare the Peshmerga had to deal with, so they gained experience in pushing ISIS out of the region.

The town of Shingal which fell to ISIS in August 2014 was retaken by the Peshmerga in November 2015 in a massive operation.

Qasim Shasho, commander of the Shingal Command said for his part that his local Yezidi forces backed by the Peshmerga were ready for the mission of clearing ISIS from any remaining areas near Shingal or “any place in Iraq.”

Shingal Protection Units (YBS) a PKK affiliate, has claimed that they could help the Peshmerga in any future offensive against ISIS.

“We could work with the Peshmerga. And through Rudaw, we are calling for the formation of a joint command to reclaim the land of the Yezidis from ISIS which is about 40 percent,” Zardasht Shingali, a YBS fighter, told Rudaw.

Haider Shasho, commander of the Ezidkhan Protection Units echoed the need for a joint command for future operations against ISIS, saying: “there is probably many of our Yezidi children, daughters, sisters and mothers numbering a thousand still under ISIS might be in these places.”

“If we are asked by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Peshmerga Ministry, we are ready,” he reiterated.