Iraqi Yazidis need 10.000 fighters to protect borders with Syria

Sinjar (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi Yazidi official has said their area west of the country needs thousands of fighters to protect the borders with Syria, predicting hundreds to be incorporated in the Iraqi army.

Xudeda Cuke, mayor of Sanoni, Sinjar, told Ayn AlIraq news website that Sinjar region “needs 10.000 fighters to protect border regions, including Sinjar”, adding that “we predict that the government will approve to enroll 300 Yazidis in the police and army forces”.

Cuke denied reports that 500 Yazidis have been already enlisted in the official Iraqi forces.

Last week, secretary-general of the Iraqi cabinet, Mahdi al-Allaq, said the government approved to incorporate Yazidi factions in Sinjar into the defenese and interior ministry forces, as well as into the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Islamic State militants had massacred thousands of Yazidis and held others hostage after they overran a third of Iraqi territories in 2014.

In March, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said in an earlier statement it announced withdrawing from the mainly-Yazidi region of Sinjar, saying it accomplished its mission of  protecting the locals from IS militants whose defeat the Iraqi government declared last December.

The Iraqi government had said it ended IS influence and imposed tight control over the borders with Syria, where the group is still active. But it has recently engaged in cross-border confrontations with the militants and launched strikes on its locations inside Syria.