'Iraqi troops deployed in Sinjar' where PKK retreated: Iraqi army

MOSUL

Iraqi troops were deployed in the Sinjar district where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants retreated on March 24, an Iraqi army spokesperson has said.

Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, Iraqi military spokesperson, said on March 25 that the Iraqi troops were deployed to the Sinjar district, Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

"The 15th brigade of the army were deployed with heavy weapons in the Sinjar district and the Sinun town," he said.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on March 25 that Turkey has been conducting operations in Sinjar to clear the mountainous area of “PKK terrorists.”

Erdoğan said that if the PKK does not vacate Sinjar and Qandil, where it has its headquarters, “it would be inevitable for us to do so personally,” in his speech at the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) congress in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.

PKK militants moved into Sinjar in 2015 to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) militants.