Sputnik - The United States is committed to expelling the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from the Iraqi city of Sinjar, but the effort will have to await the liberation of Mosul from Daesh, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan Cohen stated on Wednesday.





WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The PKK enjoys support of ethnic Yazidis in Sinjar, for having provided a corridor for Yazidis to escape a 2014 pogrom in which Daesh massacred or abducted thousands of Yazidis.
"When Mosul is finished, you’ll see increased attention by both the [Iraqi] Kurdistan regional government and Baghdad, in partnership with us, in trying to get the PKK out, whether that is voluntary or otherwise," Cohen told guests at the Middle East Institute think tank.


Cohen explained that Iraq’s Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), Turkey, the United States and the Iraqi government in Baghdad are committed to expelling the PKK from Sinjar.


But at present, the Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional government in Northern Iraq "happen to be deeply engaged in the last stages of the Mosul campaign" against Daesh, Cohen added.

Five KDP Peshmerga fighters were killed in a Turkish attack on PKK camps in the area last month.

The comment comes a day after the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the US, who has repeatedly called Washington to stop arming Syrian Kurds he believes are linked to the PKK which is considered to be a terrorist organization by Ankara.