Iraqi prime minister calls for promoting stability in Sinjar

BAGHDAD

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Monday underlined the need to promote stability in Sinjar to prevent terrorists from having a foothold in the area.

Al-Kadhimi met with a group of Ezidis in the capital Baghdad to discuss the requirements for establishing stability in Sinjar.

The meeting came a week after an Iraqi soldier was killed and two others were injured in clashes with a PKK-affiliated militia in Sinjar.

“It’s important to boost stability and restore economic activity in the area to deny terrorists the opportunity” to have a foothold, the Iraqi premier said.

Sinjar was captured by the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group in 2014 and the PKK terror organization managed to establish a foothold in the area in 2015.

In 2017, Iraq declared victory over Daesh/ISIS by reclaiming all territories the terror group controlled since the summer of 2014, estimated to be about one-third of the country’s territory.

In October 2020, the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq signed an agreement to preserve security in Sinjar by the Iraqi federal security forces in coordination with the KRG Peshmerga forces.

* Writing by Ahmed Asmar