Kurdish rebel group PKK withdrawing from Sinjar

A Kurdish rebel group was withdrawing from the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq on Friday, it said in a statement, after threats of attack from Turkey’s president who has launched a series of airstrikes against suspected Kurdish rebel camps over the past week.

The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said it moved into Sinjar to protect the Yezidi people “from genocide” at the hands of the Islamic State group and are now withdrawing “having reached that aim,” according to the statement.