Iraq: Barzani Forcess Retreat Completely from Sinjar

Local witnesses said that the Iraqi military troops took control over the Central part of Sinjar in Western Nineveh after Pishmarga forces retreated.

They added that the Iraqi forces seized the town without any clashes with the Kurdish forces and hoisted the Iraqi flag in Sinjar.

“The Iraqi army and Popular Mobilization Forces entered the town of Sinjar after the Pishmerga withdrew without a fight,” the Iraqi volunteer forces of Hashed al-Shaabi said.

In the meantime, the commander of the local Izadi fighters, Masloum Shingali, said the Kurdish forces left before dawn on Tuesday, adding that there was no fighting and that the Kurdish forces “left immediately as they didn’t want a fight”.

The town’s mayor, Mahma Khalil, also announced that the Popular Mobilization Forces are securing Sinjar.

The Northwestern town is infamous as the site of one of the ISIL group’s worst atrocities, when it killed thousands Izadi men and abducted thousands of women and girls as sex slaves in 2014.

The loss of Sinjar marks the second major city in Iraq that the Peshmerga forces have conceded to the Iraqi government forces in the last 24 hours, as the first was Kirkuk.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi ordered the country’s armed forces on Sunday night to restore security to Kirkuk.