ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Iraqi Army and a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)-linked group skirmished on Sunday night in Shingal, with each side claiming that two of their fighters were killed, as the Yezidi militia says their convoy was ambushed on their way to a meeting.
Mahma Khalil, Shingal mayor told Rudaw TV on Sunday night that the clashes occurred when a Shingal Protection Units (YBS) military vehicle came under fire from the Iraqi Army as it was attempting to cross into Iraq.
Khalil said as a result of the one-hour fight two YBS fighters were killed and three others wounded. He added one Iraqi Army soldier was killed and another was wounded.
The clashes between the YBS and the Iraqi Army's 15th Division lasted for an hour and occurred in Tipirka in western Shingal, according to a Rudaw reporter in Shingal.
The Shingal mayor said on Monday the YBS force were in armed standoff with the Iraqi army in the area.
The fighting erupted "after the Iraqi army called the YBS for a meeting. While the YBS convoys were on their way to the meeting, the Iraqi Army ambushed them, engaging in clashes,” Qasim Khalaf, a Yezidi lawyer, told Rudaw English on Monday.
He called it a "blatant plot" against the YBS, adding such skirmishes are "expected to happen at any moment."
"This is because the state [Iraq] does not accept our presence in Shingal, so do we,” Khalaf claimed. He vowed Yezidi support “to the death.”
As of Monday morning "guns have silenced" and a "delegation from the Iraqi Army's 15th division will visit the YBS,” added Khalaf.
The Iraqi military released a statement on the event, claiming “the PKK force” was the aggressor and resulted in “two of their soldiers killed.”
“A force from the PKK attacked a security checkpoint of the Iraqi army's 1st Battalion, Brigade 72 of the Nineveh Operations Command after a soldier demanded that the PKK force obtain security approvals in order to allow them to pass. But, the PKK force attacked the soldier and attacked [checkpoint] control employees,” read the Iraqi statement.
The statement claimed the YBS fighters entered Iraq from Syria.
Locals say they are tired of continued instability in the region calling on both sides to leave.
"We are fed up with violence and fighting," Nezir Cercur, 26, a resident of Shingal, lamented. "This ongoing growing instability sparks fear among people."
Cercur says the "best solution is for both sides just to leave us. Their presence has only brought us problems."
Hemo Shiro, 28, another Yezidi civil, echoed the sentiment expressing that the "only side damaged amid all the tension is the normal people."
After Turkish airstrikes in Shingal in August killed Zaki Shingali, a top PKK leader from Turkey, relations between the Iraqi Army and the PKK have deteriorated.
Harbo Khidir, a PKK official in Shingal, has accused the Iraqi Army of providing intelligence to Turkey so they could target Zaki's convoy.
Similar clashes erupted in early February between the Iraqi Army and the YBS in Shingal after Iraqi forces asked the PKK-affiliated YBS to remove a checkpoint near a village in western Shingal leaving no casualties.
Through parts of the ISIS conflict, Baghdad paid PKK salaries in Shingal. However last year, former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said all foreign fighters should leave the country.
In Shingal various armed factions operate including the YBS, Hashd al-Shaabi, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga, local police and security, federal police, and provincial authorities.
Lacking a security agreement between Erbil and Baghdad, the security situation in Shingal remains uncertain.
Ezidkhan Protection Force leader Haydar Shasho, who is not affiliated with the PKK said the Iraqi government, has called on PKK-affiliated groups and the Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias to leave Shingal in order to avoid clashes.
"The PKK must not be allowed to freely commute in the region and they should not be present in Shingal in the first place," Shasho said.
Such skirmishes "definitely discourage IDPs from returning home fearing their lives,” added Shasho.
He said the best possible solution is to form a "joint Peshmerga-Iraqi Army force to take control of and protect the Iraq-Syria border near Shingal."
He explained the "essence" of the continued clashes is over whom should control the border and that is a "trade" matter.
A crossing connecting Shingal in Iraq to Syria's al-Hol was under the control of the YBS, but now it is under the Iraqi Army and the PKK is adamant that wants to access it, something "not accepted" by Iraq, according to Shasho.
Some 550,000 Yezidis live in Iraq as of March 4, according to the General Directorate of Yezidi Affairs in the KRG Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments. It reports 360,000 Yezidis were displaced from their homeland of Shingal. Most live in IDP camps in Duhok province.
Reporting by Zhelwan Z. Wali and Tahsin Qasim
