Haider al-Abadi: Iraq Will Prevent Kurdish Militants from Attacking Turkey

Haider al-Abadi, the Prime Minister of Iraq, stated on Tuesday that the armed forces of the country will prevent attacks by Kurdish militants stationed in northern Iraq against Turkey. According to Reuters, the Iraqi Prime Minister's commitment, made during a phone conversation with the Turkish Prime Minister, comes a day after Ankara threatened to intervene directly if Iraqi operations against Kurdish militants in the Sinjar area do not yield results. The Turkish government has long complained that militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), based in the Sinjar area, use these regions as a base to attack government forces across the border. The Iraqi Prime Minister's office stated that Abadi told the Turkish Prime Minister, 'The Iraqi armed forces have been instructed not to allow foreign militants to operate in the border areas of the country with Turkey.' Iraqi state media reported that General Osman al-Ghanimi, the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army, also emphasized this commitment during a visit to forces stationed in the Sinjar area, stating, 'The Iraqi Army has full control of Sinjar and the border strip with Turkey.' On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned that the head of Turkey's security agency would meet with a senior Iraqi official regarding the Iraqi Army's operations in the Sinjar area. Erdogan added that if the Iraqi Army's operations in this area fail, Turkey will take 'any necessary action,' thereby raising the possibility of direct Turkish military operations in the Sinjar area. Reuters recalls that the Turkish Army has recently launched a large-scale military operation against Kurdish militants in Syria's Afrin region. The Kurdish militants known as the People's Protection Units (YPG) are a key ally of the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), but the Turkish government claims they have close ties with the PKK and thus considers them a terrorist force. The PKK, which is also designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the EU, has been fighting against Turkish government forces for several decades. The militants of this group have been stationed in the Qandil mountains of Iraq near the Iranian border. Sources in northern Iraq reported on Friday that the PKK intends to withdraw from the Sinjar area. This group had established itself in Sinjar in 2014 after sending forces to assist the Yazidi minority in the area, which was under attack by the Islamic State. In this context, Erdogan announced the start of Turkish military operations in Sinjar; Iraq denied this.