Baghdad — On Monday an
Iraqi soldier was killed and two others were injured in clashes with Yazidi fighters in the northern region of Sinjar, an army officer and an MP said.
اضافة اعلان
The heartland of Iraq's
Yazidi minority, Sinjar, is the site of frequent confrontations between security forces and local fighters affiliated with Turkey's banned separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The two sides traded accusations of having ignited the latest fighting, which broke out Sunday.
Sherwan al-Douberdani, a provincial deputy, said a soldier was killed, while a senior army official said two other soldiers were injured.
The clashes also cost the lives of a dozen Yazidi fighters, said the officer, who spoke anonymously.
Iraqi security forces, in a statement, accused the Yazidi fighters of setting up roadblocks and preventing civilians from passing through the village of Snuny north of Sinjar.
Soldiers attempted to open the roads Monday morning but came under "heavy fire," the statement said, pointing to the presence of "snipers on the rooftops" and mine-riddled roads.
The army responded and restored order there; the statement added.
According to the news agency ANF, the Iraqi military used heavy artillery in the clashes close to the separatists.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, a Yazidi enslaved for months by Daesh who brutalized her community in 2014, called for an end to the violence.
"After years of displacement, recent returnees are once again forced to flee their homes because of current armed clashes in Sinjar. I call on the international community to intervene & work with the Iraqi government to resolve the region's ongoing security issues & protect civilians," she tweeted.
The Sinjar region is also a frequent target of Turkish airstrikes on the rear bases of the PKK. Last August, eight people were killed in a Turkish strike on a Sinjar clinic treating a PKK member.
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