Iraq\u2019s prime minister has announced that a Yazidi armed group linked to the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) in the northern Iraqi district of Sinjar will begin handing over its weapons to the state, with eligible fighters to be integrated into the Iraqi security forces.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi announced<\/a> the move Friday after meeting with leaders of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YB\u015e) and a delegation from the Yazidi Cause Alliance.<\/p>\n Al-Zaidi said Mount Sinjar would come under the full authority of the federal government and its security and administrative institutions.<\/p>\n The government will normalize the status of YB\u015e members and members of its women\u2019s units and integrate those who qualify into Iraqi security institutions under the law.<\/p>\n Al-Zaidi said bringing weapons under state control and putting security decisions under one authority were necessary to protect residents and stabilize the district.<\/p>\n He also ordered the creation of a committee to assess Sinjar\u2019s security, public services and reconstruction needs and to help displaced residents return.<\/p>\n Sinjar, in Iraq\u2019s Nineveh province near the Syrian border, is the historic homeland of much of the country\u2019s Yazidi minority and was the scene of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant\u2019s (ISIL) 2014 campaign of killings, abductions and sexual slavery against the community.<\/p>\n The YB\u015e rose to prominence during the ISIL assault, when Yazidi fighters along with PKK militants helped defend civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar and later fought the jihadist group.<\/p>\n The YB\u015e has received support from the PKK and has been described<\/a> by Reuters and other sources as affiliated with the Kurdish militant group, although the YB\u015e has denied that it is organizationally part of the PKK.<\/p>\n Turkey regards the YB\u015e as an extension of the PKK and has carried out drone strikes against its commanders and fighters in Sinjar.<\/p>\n The PKK, which began an armed campaign against the Turkish state in 1984, is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.<\/p>\n Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government reached an agreement in 2020 aimed at restoring state control over Sinjar after years in which Iraqi forces, Kurdish forces, Yazidi armed groups and PKK-linked fighters competed for influence in the district.<\/p>\n