A Bayraktar TB2 combat drone. Source: Baykar.
On May 23, three personnel of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), a Yazidi armed faction affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were killed in a Turkish drone strike on Iraq’s northern region.
The counter-terrorism services of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said that the drone strike targeted a YBS base near the village of Khalaf in the district of Sinjar, one of the few heartlands of the non-Muslim Yazidi minority in Iraq.
Meanwhile, news sources affiliated with the PKK claimed that the Turkish drone strike hit “a house” without mentioning any links to the YBS.
Click to see full-size image. Source: fb.com/KURDISTAN.CT
Click to see full-size image. Source: fb.com/KURDISTAN.CT
This was the second Turkish attack against the YBS within a week. On May 16, three personnel of the group were killed in a drone strike on Sinjar.
Turkish combat drones have been targeting the PKK and its affiliates in northern Iraq as well as in the northern and eastern region of neighboring Syria for the last few years. Dozens of Kurdish fighters, commanders and civilian officials were killed in drone strikes.
In April, a drone strike hit the convoy of Ferhat Abdi Şahin, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), near the city of Sulaymaniyah in Kurdistan. Şahin, who is more known by his nom de guerre Mazloum Abdi, survived the attack. Western officials believe that the strike was carried out by Turkey, who consider the SDF to be the Syrian branch of the PKK.
Despite inflicting some serious losses on the PKK and its affiliates, Turkey has so far failed to contain the Kurdish group’s influence.
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i remember the video of a young girl being stoned to death by yazidi men for dating outside the tribe, even if they are the enemies of turkey idaf, good riddance
alhamdulillah…more successful bombing with turkish bayraktar tb2 👍