'Threat of airstrikes' by Turkey stunting Iraq's minority communities: US official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Threats of airstrikes by Turkey amid its current military offensive are harming Iraq's already vulnerable ethnic and religious communities, a US official has said.

In a discussion held by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on Iraq’s minority groups, the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour condemned recent Turkish airstrikes on the Yezidi heartland of  Shingal, near the Syrian border.

“How can people possibly flourish if they are under the threat of airstrikes?” Robert Destro said on Tuesday, in response to a question from Rudaw's Roj Eli Zalla on Turkish airstrikes in Sinjar (Shingal).

The airstrikes in the early hours of June 15 came just days after hundreds of Yezidi families returned to the Shingal area from displacement camps across the Kurdistan Region. While the area was liberated from the Islamic State (ISIS) group  in 2015, few members of the community have returned to the area, with basic services yet to be restored and concerns for their security amid the presence of a host of government and non-government military forces.

"Recent airstrikes conducted by Turkey have not only endangered the lives of Yezidis in Sinjar but have also dimmed the prospect of the return of civilians to their areas of origin," read a statement from the Free Yezidi Foundation, calling on various bodies including the UN Security Council, NATO and the Global Coalition against ISIS to take action. 

"The question of how you deal with airstrikes is a little bit out of my portfolio...The only thing I think that can be done is engagement with the Turks and other people who have been acting in ways that are not conducive to the health of these communities," Destro added.

At least five civilians have been killed across the Kurdistan Region in the aerial Operation Claw-Eagle, launched by Ankara with the stated aim of targeting alleged Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) locations in the Kurdistan Region and in northern Iraqi territories disputed by the governments of the Kurdistan Region and federal Iraq, including Makhmour and Shingal.

Though Claw-Eagle has been the largest scale air offensive on the Kurdistan Region and disputed areas of Iraq for some time, Shingal has long been subject to individual airstrikes largely suspected to have been conducted by Turkey. A spate of Turkish airstrikes hit the region in 2018, killing prominent PKK leader Zaki Shingali on the anniversary of the Kocho massacre by ISIS. 

“If Turkey has concerns about the security of Sinjar, it must discuss them with Iraqi authorities, not terrify a population still recovering from genocide,” Yezidi activist Murad Ismael told Al-Monitor on June 15.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan government body, has also condemned the targeting of Yezidi settlements by Ankara.

“These actions are particularly threatening to hundreds of traumatized Yazidi families attempting to return to Sinjar and to other civilians in northern Iraq — none of whom deserve to be placed in harm’s way by a NATO ally,” USCIRF chair Gayle Manchin said in a June 19 statement.

The US State Department has been noticeably quiet with regards to the airstrikes, but US congressmen have individually issued condemnation of Turkey's operations.

"I am extremely disturbed by reports of Turkish military attacks on Kurdish people in Iraq. The Kurds have been a reliable U.S. partner in the fight against ISIS, and any violence against civilians by President Erdogan must be condemned," said Rep. Jim Cooper, Democratic congressman for the state of Tennessee - home to the city of Nashville, where a large Kurdish community lives.

Additional reporting by Roj Eli Zalla

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