MESOP : STRANGE ADOPTIONS OF THE YEZIDI – Registration for Shiite Militia Force Continues in Sinjar Area / People in the area with connections to PKK still registering Yezidis as Shiite militia

Basnews | Hoshmand Sadiq – 18.04.2015 – Erbil – The commander of Sinjar Protection Units, Haidar Shasho who was arrested for establishing a new Shiite militia force in Sinjar, announced after his release that he would cut all ties with Iranian backed Shiite militias.

However, people in the area with connections to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are still registering Yezidis as Shiite militia. A source told BasNews that Saed Hassan, head of the Democratic council of Yezidis who was working with the PKK to establish a new canton in Sinjar, secretly visited Baghdad through Syria, and met with Shiite commanders to help arm a new group of volunteer fighters in his area. The source confirmed that Hassan made an agreement with Baghdad to receive logistical support to recruit and arm one thousand Kurdish Yazidis from Sinjar to form a new group linked to Shiite militias. Moreover, the source revealed that alongside the plan to create the group, the PKK has also set up six schools on Sinjar mountain, teaching the Romanised Kurdish alphabet letters to spread their own agenda and language among the Yazidi students. The Shiite People’s Mobilization, also known as al-Hashd al-Shaab, is an Iraqi Shiite armed militia backed by Iran. It was formed in June 2014 after a fatwa issued by Grand Ayatulla Ali Sistani to Iraqi people to take up weapons and fight against Islamic State (IS).