On Friday 4 March 2017 military clashes took place at the Khanasore complex in the Sinjar area between Sinjar Protection Units (SPU) belonging to the PKK, (mostly composed of Yazidis), and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Elements of Rojava Peshmarga, (composed of Sunni Muslim Kurds and some Arab personnel from Syria).
Each group blames the other for starting the fire fight. The SPU has command and control of the Khanasor complex and has stated that they did not receive any coordination requests, orders, and or approvals which lead to the SPU not giving access to the Rojava Peshmarga units who than tried to forcibly enter the completed triggering the fighting.
Mr. Saed Hassan, the SPU leader, stated that the Peshmarga forces intent was to take control of the Khanasor complex, and that this move came on the heal’s of President Masud Barzany’s visit to Turkey. KRG representative asserted that the Peshmarga have the right to enter any area they wish at anytime without a need to justify their operations. KRG also stated that they have released five Yezidies belonging to the SPU who were captured during the fire fight and that the fighting began after the SPU refused to allow the Peshmarga forces access to the Syrian border through the Khanasore Complete.
This conflict which lead to a number of wounded-in-action (WIA’s) and an unconfirmed number of killed-in-action (KIA’s) is glimpse of what is to come in Iraq after ISIS has been defeated in Mosul.
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