Iraq struggles to expel ‘deeply rooted’ Kurdish militia from north, despite tension with Turkey

It will not be easy for Iraq to expel the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from the country, the head of the Turkmen Association said yesterday.

His comment came after weeks of tensions between Turkey and PKK fighters based in Sinjar province and north Iraq.

“Iraq cannot rid itself of the PKK as they are deeply rooted in the north,” Sundus Abbas told The National.

“I doubt that they (PKK) have left the Qandil mountain because they have a military base there. They are also seen in Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmato and Daqooq as well as other places,” Ms Abbas said.

Haider Al Abadi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, recently called on Kurdish insurgents in Iraq to disarm as Turkey raised the prospects of a military intervention in the country’s north.

Mr Al Abadi last month ordered security forces to take full control of Iraq’s borders amid escalating tensions between Ankara and the PKK.

“The PKK has long existed in Iraq. We welcome them as refugees but we will not allow them to have arms,” the premier said in Baghdad.

Turkey has repeatedly threatened to attack PKK bases in northern Iraq in retaliation for the armed group’s decades-old insurgency against Ankara.

In March, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was ready to begin a military offensive in Sinjar, on the Syrian border, if Iraq did not expel the Kurdish fighters. “We will do what is necessary if Iraq fails in Sinjar,” Mr Erdgoan said.

Parts of Sinjar became makeshift PKK bases in 2014, when the Kurdish militia launched a military operation to rescue members of the Yazidi community from an ISIS onslaught, and stayed. Mr Al Abadi said, “we asked them (PKK) to leave Sinjar and they did”.

Mahma Khalil, Sinjar’s mayor, denies these reports. “Despite officially announcing their withdrawal, PKK fighters remain in Sinjar,” he said.

Mr Khalil also denied that Turkish forces had moved towards Sinjar, despite Mr Erdogan’s threats to intervene.

Mr Al Abadi also dismissed reports that any foreign forces had crossed into Iraq.

“Turkey has been shelling [PKK fighters] but Turkish forces have not been deployed on the Iraqi border. We object to any strikes on Iraq, especially the Kurdistan region,” said Mr Al Abadi.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the US, has for years been based in Iraq’s Qandil mountain range, near the border with Iran.

On Wednesday, Turkish state media reported that a solider was killed and three others were wounded in a PKK attack in Iraq’s Kani Rash region.