Group of Yazidi fighters targeted by new Turkish drone attack in Iraq

A new drone attack killed three Yazidi fighters on Tuesday morning, May 23, according to Kurdish anti-terrorist forces. (Illustrative image) AFP - SAFIN HAMED

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A week after a Turkish strike on the positions of armed groups close to the PKK, in Sinjar, Iraq, a new drone attack killed three Yazidi fighters on Tuesday morning, May 23, according to Kurdish anti-terrorist forces.

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With our correspondent in Baghdad, Marie-Charlotte Roupie

This bombing is the second in the space of a week. The Sinjar resistance units, targeted again on Tuesday morning, say Turkish pressure has intensified with the start of elections in Turkey.

Three Yazidi fighters were reportedly killed. They have been targeted for their association, since 2014 against Daesh, with the Turkish Kurdish fighters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, considered terrorists by Ankara. But these Yazidi units are also attached to the former paramilitaries of Hashd al-Shaabi, now integrated into the regular Iraqi army.

In this context of complex alliance, Baghdad is accused of remaining too timid in condemning these violations of its territory, for two reasons. The first is that Baghdad has been in latent conflict with these forces present in Sinjar since the end of the war, to regain full control of the region. The second is that it would be mainly a question of preserving its strategic relations with its Turkish neighbor, while an agreement has been reached to revive North Iraqi oil exports, interrupted last March.

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• Iraq
• Turkey
• Kurds