MESOP NEWS “SOUTH KURDISTAN” : MORE TROOPS TO AVOID THE PKK THREAT – Kurdistan’s Barzani plans to boost Roj Peshmerga troops to 10,000

6 March 2017 – HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Plans are underway to increase the number of Syrian Peshmerga forces, also known as Roj Brigade, to 10,000 after deadly clashes erupted last week between them and the Yazidi Sinjar Protection Units (YBS) supported by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to the commander of the Roj Brigade.Commander Sharvan Diroki also said the US had given green signal for the Roj troops, which are mainly based on the Iraqi border, to enter Kurdish territories in Syria.

“We have plans to boost the number of our Peshmerga to around 10,000 in three months time after new training sessions,” Diroki told Rudaw.Clashes broke out on March 3, between Roj Peshmerga forces and YBS fighters in the district of Sinune in Sinjar a day after Roj Peshmerga deployed to the area.Commanders from both sides accuse the other of initiating the attack.

A commander from Roj Peshmerga told NRT on Friday YBS fighters had first launched the attack at dawn on Friday in the district of Sinune on the border of the Kurdistan Region and Syria.The PKK commander in Sinjar, Agid Jivyan, also said that the Roj Peshmerga forces had first attacked the YBS fighters.

The PKK blamed Massoud Barzani’s close ties with Ankara for clashes between rival Kurdish forces following the deployment of a force loyal to one party at an area controlled by the other.The Roj Brigade, also backed by Turkey, is the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDPS), which is currently based in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and enjoys the support of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraq.

Roj forces, which is backed by Turkish government, is financed and taking commands from Massoud Barzani.

The ENKS, an organization opposed to the powerful Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD party which control Syrian Kurdistan, was established by Massoud Barzani in October 2011. The KDPS is a member of the ENKS which is part of the larger opposition alliance in Syria, the Syrian National Council, and is composed of about a dozen of small Kurdish parties in the country.The Roj Peshmerga troops, whose number is around 7000, have so far been denied access to the Kurdish enclave by the PYD.