Sinjar district in Nineveh province has entered a new phase of security arrangements, as the Iraqi government moves to register weapons, consolidate the authority of the federal forces and reactivate local institutions, while addressing the status of armed formations and preparing conditions for the return of around 30,000 displaced people.
The measures coincide with understandings between Baghdad and Ankara concerning the extension of Iraqi state authority in the district and the handover of the Zilkan military base to the federal forces. Sinjar, whose population is predominantly from Iraq’s Yazidi community, lies around 130 kilometres west of Mosul.
Security committee to settle Sinjar’s status
Through the new arrangements, the government seeks to reorganise the district’s security and administrative landscape, end overlapping powers and influence among the forces and formations operating there, and address the status of non-Iraqi armed personnel. Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Yahya Rasool said Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ali al-Zaidi had formed a committee chaired by the army chief of staff and including several commanders and representatives of the security and intelligence agencies.
He said the committee was tasked with settling the security file in Sinjar and consolidating the authority of the federal forces throughout the district. Rasool added that its work included registering weapons and ending armed displays, as well as reactivating the district’s institutions to enable the provision of basic services to residents.
The committee is also handling the status of the district administration, the local authority in Sinjar, which is still run by the Kurdistan Region, along with the files of armed personnel, compensation and other security and administrative issues linked to conditions in the area. On the humanitarian front, the Iraqi government is working to return around 30,000 displaced Sinjar residents to their areas, Rasool said.
Return of displaced people and restoration of district institutions
He said the return of displaced people was one of the key issues being addressed under the ongoing government measures, alongside restoring state institutions and services. As part of the committee’s work, Iraqi army chief of staff General Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah met military commanders stationed in Sinjar on 22 September.
The meeting discussed measures to settle the security file and strengthen enforcement of the law, as well as assessing the forces’ readiness and deployment across the district, according to a statement by the Iraqi Defence Ministry. Yarallah also held a series of intensive meetings with formations deployed in Sinjar, foremost among them the Sinjar Resistance Units, locally known as the YBS, and the Women’s Units, known as the YPJ, in addition to several other factions.
The talks focused on a mechanism for handing over the formations’ weapons to the government authorities. The field moves coincided with the Sinjar file being raised during Iraqi-Turkish meetings held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly sessions in New York.
Iraqi-Turkish understanding on the Zilkan base
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to extend the Iraqi state’s authority fully over Sinjar and hand over the Zilkan base in Bashiqa to the Iraqi federal forces, according to a mechanism and timetable to be agreed by the two sides. The parties did not set a deadline for implementing the understanding, while US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack praised the step.
Turkey established the Zilkan base in December 2015, in agreement with the authorities of the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. The base lies around 32 kilometres north of Mosul, which was then under the control of Islamic State.
The new understanding links the transfer of the base to the Iraqi federal forces with broader arrangements aimed at strengthening the presence of state institutions in Sinjar and reasserting security control in the area. An official source within the Sinjar Resistance Units said the agreement with the Iraqi government was still preliminary and that the units were awaiting the next steps.
He explained that the understanding provided for the integration of nearly 4,000 of its members into the Iraqi army, police and Popular Mobilisation Forces in a way that guaranteed their rights. The source stressed that decisions within the Sinjar Resistance Units were independent of decisions by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, denying any current link between his forces and the party.
Integration of Sinjar Resistance Units members into the official forces?
This comes as the reshaping of the security landscape raises questions about the nature of the relationship between armed Yazidi groups and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, and the extent to which those groups’ decisions are independent. Murad Ismail, head of the Yazidi Cause Alliance bloc in the Iraqi parliament, welcomed the latest security understandings, describing them as the most important step in a decade.
He said the Yazidis had lived through exceptional circumstances, including genocide, displacement and instability, as well as delays in restoring life to the area and the major risks this posed to residents.
Ismail said the agreement achieved several goals, including enabling Yazidi youth to join Iraq’s official forces and help protect the area, as well as registering weapons and strengthening the Yazidi community’s confidence in the state and its institutions. He stressed that his alliance supported the prime minister’s efforts to place weapons under state control and end the presence of any foreign forces or formations linked to external agendas.
He added that the aim was to build a security institution operating within the framework of Iraqi law and constitution and responsible for protecting the area and its residents. Saman Dawood, a specialist in minority affairs and armed groups in Sinjar, said Yazidi groups made their decisions independently of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, except in limited cases.
He attributed this to the distinct nature of the Yazidis and the difference between their priorities and the party’s positions and the course of the Kurdish national movement. Dawood added that the Sinjar Resistance Units supported the presence of Iraqi state authority and were the first military force to raise the Iraqi flag on Mount Sinjar as an expression of their affiliation with the state.
He said this position differed from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s approach, explaining that he was referring to Iraqi Yazidi leaders, not Turkish, Syrian or other foreign leaders. Regarding a transition from armed activity to political activity, Dawood said the path had been under consideration from the outset, but expected the next development to be primarily security-related.
He explained that the aim was to contain any potential crisis between the Sinjar Resistance Units and the Iraqi army during the implementation of the new arrangements. Dawood said the Yazidis and parties supporting the agreement had called for the Sinjar Resistance Units to be integrated into Iraq’s security system, strengthening protection for the area and its Yazidi presence within a legal framework.
Several Yazidi armed formations operate in Sinjar, most notably the Sinjar Resistance Units, the Women’s Protection Units and the Sinjar Peshmerga, as well as the Yazidi Khan and Lalish formations and other forces, while estimates of their fighter numbers vary.
