YPG fighters
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs announced on December 16 that its forces had come under an attack of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Deputy Peshmerga Minister Sarbast Lazgin told reporters that a group of eight YPG fighters attempted to sneak from northeastern Syria to the KRG territory in the early morning. The group was warned by the Peshmerga. However, five fighters went on with their attempt.
Later, a Peshmerga border position in the area, where the infiltration attempt took place, came under attack by 50 to 60 gunmen coming from northeastern Syria.
Northeastern Syria is controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are the core of the Kurdish-led group.
The attack on Peshmerga was condemned by KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, who called it an “unprovoked attack by the YPG.”
“This was a clear and illegal violation of the territory of Kurdistan Region and the authority of the Kurdistan Regional Government,” Barzani said. “The YPG cannot be allowed to exploit foreign assistance to launch attacks on our territory. Any repeat would be seriously damaging to regional security.”
Barzani called on the U.S.-led coalition to ensure that the YPG will not launch any new attacks on the Peshmerga from Syria’s northeastern region.
“The YPG cannot be allowed to exploit foreign assistance to launch attacks on our territory,” the PM said in a statement. “Any repeat would be seriously damaging to regional security.”
Commander-in-Chief of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, slammed the attack on Peshmerga as a “shameful,” saying on Twitter that all attacks on the KRG Peshmerga should stop.
This was not the first such incident. Two days earlier, a Peshmerga soldier was killed in clashes with PKK fighters in the area of Amedi in Duhok province.
The SDF does not seems to be able to build constructive relations with any of its neighbors, not with Turkey, Damascus or even the KRG. The Kurdish-led group is isolated and is becoming more and more dependent on U.S. support, which has been steadily declining.
Terrorists vs traitors Kill each other please
Terrorists have their factional issues, Turks and ISIS/al-Qaeda have also exchanged fire at times.
Lol
Kurdish civil war
Barzani and the KDP are crawling further and further up Erdogan’s proverbial, they like to give us the impression the whole KRG fully support Turkish policy in the region but that’s not the truth. Barzani heads the KDP who make up the bulk of the KRG [Kurdish autonomous regional Government] but they’re not the only ones who make up the KRG, the PUK also has a big political voice in the KRG and they have just as many fighters as the KDP do [about 30,000 each], so Barzani may lead the KRG but he doesn’t speak for all of the political parties who make up the KRG. The PUK Peshmerga are actually allied to the Turkish PKK [which pisses off Erdogan no end], and they even offered to send PUK forces to Syria to help their fellow Kurds in Syria help repel the Turkish invasion [KDP and Iraqi Gov refused to let them], so don’t assume all Iraqi Kurds think the same.