Iraqi forces enter disputed city of Sinjar without a fight

Tensions still high between Baghdad and Kurds

Iraqi security forces on Tuesday entered the city of Sinjar, which is part of the disputed areas claimed by both the Baghdad government and the Kurdish region, official Kurdish media said.

The troops entered Sinjar, some 100 kilometers west of Mosul, without fighting, after the Kurdish security forces withdrew from the city, according to the website of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a major Kurdish party in which the Iraqi President Fuad Masoum is a leading figure.

“The Iraqi forces and a Hashd Shaabi brigade entered the central part of Sinjar and took positions in the local government buildings and main streets,” the website quoted the PUK spokesperson, Ghiyath Sourji, as saying.

Sinjar is part of Iraq’s northern Province of Nineveh, and is mainly inhabited by Yazidis with Arab and Turkoman minorities.

The withdrawal of the Peshmerga forces came a day after the Iraqi forces pushed into Kirkuk Province, which is part of the disputed areas outside the Kurdish region, and forced the Kurdish forces to withdraw.

Disagreements between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government have been running high for years.

The ethnic Kurds consider northern Kirkuk Province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkomans and by the central government in Baghdad.

Tensions are escalating between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas.

The independence of Kurdistan is opposed not only by the Iraqi central government, but also by most other countries as it would threaten the integrity of Iraq and undermine the fight against IS militants.