Iraqi court detains 5 YBŞ members on terror charges

Shafaq News/ Five members of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ), affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), have been detained on terrorism charges under Article 4 by a court in Nineveh province, a local source in Sinjar said on Friday.

The arrests followed an incident where YBŞ fighters reportedly stormed Sinjar, abducted an engineer, and threw hand grenades at an Iraqi army checkpoint, injuring two officers. In response, the Iraqi military has reinforced security by erecting barriers, increasing checkpoints, and tightening control over movements in and out of Sinjar to prevent further escalations, the source added.

YBŞ, primarily composed of Yazidi fighters, operates under PKK leadership, which includes commanders from Syria and Turkiye rather than local Sinjar residents.

YBŞ Rejects Terrorist Label

The YBŞ strongly rejected being labeled as “terrorists and mercenaries” and accused the Iraqi military of attacking and detaining its members. In a statement, the group claimed that a faction of the Iraqi army launched an “unprovoked assault” on a YBŞ vehicle on March 18, capturing five fighters.

The statement further alleged that some of the captured fighters were injured and mistreated, with videos of the incident being circulated online. YBŞ said its attempts to resolve the situation diplomatically had been ignored and denounced the army’s classification of its members as terrorists.

According to YBŞ, its fighters were ambushed while performing their duties, accusing certain army officers of conspiring with an unnamed security agency to orchestrate the incident. The group denied allegations of kidnapping or targeting civilians, insisting it would not abduct members of its own Yazidi community.

Growing Security Concerns 

The Iraqi Security Media Cell confirmed that the engineer was freed on Wednesday following a military operation that injured two of his captors and led to the arrest of five others in northern Sinjar.

Meanwhile, a local source told Shafaq News that YBŞ had given the Iraqi military and police a 24-hour ultimatum to release its detained members or face potential armed confrontation.

The repeated clashes have sparked fresh concerns over security in Sinjar, with the Migration and Displacement Directorate in Duhok warning of a surge in Yazidi families returning to refugee camps due to ongoing violence between Iraqi forces and PKK-linked fighters.

Sinjar has seen periodic skirmishes between the Iraqi army and YBŞ, with casualties on both sides. The latest confrontations erupted on Tuesday during a search operation for the kidnapped engineer when YBŞ fighters reportedly refused to comply with security directives, triggering a shootout.