Kurdish MP claims 'link' between PKK, Hashd al-Shaabi

By Haydar Hadi

BAGHDAD

Iraq’s mainly Shia Hashd al-Shaabi fighting group supports the PKK terrorist group’s presence in the country and has even established some PKK units, a Kurdish parliamentarian claimed Friday.

Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) lawmaker Majid Sengali told Anadolu Agency that “certain elements” of the Hashd al-Shaabi were supporting the PKK in Iraq and that the two groups had “organic links”.

Noting that these elements had committed “provocative acts” in Iraq’s northern Sinjar district, Sengali said: "They [the Hashd al-Shaabi] provoke the local people against the Peshmerga. District residents haven’t been able to return to Sinjar even thought the district was liberated some 18 months ago."

"The Shia militia openly supports the PKK presence in Iraq,” he went on to assert. “Baghdad and Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) must unite to drive the PKK from the area.”

"Recent demonstrations in Sinjar were attended by Arabs and Kurds brought from Syria by the PKK; local residents didn’t take part at all," Sengali said, referring to an unauthorized pro-PKK demonstration held against the Peshmerga on March 14 in Sinjar near Mosul.

Decrying the “hypocrisy” of the Baghdad government, he added: "The central government remains silent in regard to the terrorist PKK organization and has refrained from demanding its departure from the country."

Earlier this week, a group of PKK members marched on Peshmerga positions in Sinjar, leading to clashes in which one person was killed.

The PKK has continued to try to establish a foothold in and around Sinjar on the pretext that it is fighting the Daesh terrorist group.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for his part, made it clear last November that Turkey would never allow Sinjar to become “a new Qandil”, in reference to a major PKK stronghold in northern Iraq near the Iranian border.