Turkey targets PKK-linked Yazidis inside Iraq

A local Yazidi armed group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party and affiliated with the government-incorporated Popular Mobilization Units has been targeted as part of stepped-up Turkish cross-border operations.

Shelly Kittleson
Shelly Kittleson
Dec 13, 2021
Iraqi riot police protect the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad after calls on social media to gather outside the embassy to protest Turkey's vows to invade the northwestern enclave of Sinjar, Iraq, Feb. 18, 2021.
Iraqi riot police protect the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad after calls on social media to gather outside the embassy to protest Turkey's vows to invade the northwestern enclave of Sinjar, Iraq, Feb. 18, 2021. — Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images

BAGHDAD — Turkey has targeted members of a local Yazidi armed group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and taken losses among its own forces stationed in the region.

The military commander of the local armed faction, the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), Marwan Badal, was reportedly killed by a drone strike on his car Dec. 7.

The counterterrorism directorate of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq called him a "commander of the PKK militias" in announcing the news.

Three Turkish soldiers deployed to areas of northern Iraq were then killed in an attack by the PKK on Dec. 9. Turkey has forces at multiple bases in northern Iraq, which borders Turkey’s southeast.

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