ANF – SINJAR 22.07.2014
ISIS gangs attacking the village of Guhbel in the Yezidi region of Sinjar in South Kurdistan have been forced to retreat by the resistance of the villagers.
Local residents have armed themselves to protect their homes and fields and begun to guard the village.
Following the capture by ISIS gangs of large swathes of the Mosul and Nineveh regions almost without firing a shot after 9 May, then seizing much of Salahaddin, Anbar and Diyala in a similar way, the gangs have begun to target the Yezidi, Shabak and Christian communities living in the Nineveh region.
Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the savagery of the ISIS gangs have taken refuge in Kurdish areas. Sinjar is looking after tens of thousands of displaced people, but is threatened by these gangs.
Yesterday ISIS gangs attacked the village of Guhbel, having previously targeted the district centre of Tilbenat and the village of Girzerik.
The gangs fired mortars at the village of Guhbel, 15 km to the north of Sinjar town, then entered the villagers’ fields and detonated TNT, destroying 3 houses and an irrigation pump.
The residents of the village, who are all Yezidi Kurds, responded by arming themselves and going to the scene of the attack, where, with the partial assistance arriving peshmerga, the ISIS gangs left without putting up a fight.
Villagers who spoke to ANF said the peshmerga forces were not providing proper protection, and that they would endeavour to protect their fields by standing guard over them.
Villagers want the PKK to come to the area
Local residents, recalling the statement of PKK Executive Committee member Murat Karayılan, want the KDP to open the area to PKK guerrillas. Following the capture of Mosul by ISIS,
Murat Karayılan told the ANF that they were prepared to defend Sinjar and Kirkuk and issued a call to the South Kurdistan parties thus: “We are ready to defend our people and gains in the South. In the event of the necessary cooperation being realised it is evident that no force can defeat us. Today our people in the South face the threat of ISIS. The HPG has the capability to make the required response to these hostile forces. I call on the KDP and PUK to create the possibility of developing a joint struggle against these forces at this historic time. In particular, I call for the opportunity to be provided so that the HPG forces can join the defence of our people in Kirkuk and Sinjar.”
