US Troops Deployed to Iraq’s Sinjar Mountain
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A local Iraqi governor said heavily-armed American soldiers have been deployed to Sinjar district in northern Iraq.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, District Governor Mahma Khalil said Saturday that the US troops, armed with heavy weapons and military vehicles, have been stationed at Sinjar Mountain.
He added that the US had already planned a deployment to Sinjar in order to establish a military base near the strategic mountain, which is located a few kilometers from Iraq-Syria border.
Iraqi sources have also reported that American forces had arrived at Sinjar Mountain with 15 armored personnel carriers on Friday.
Sinjar, a town in Nineveh Province of Iraq, is inhabited mainly by Izadi Kurds, with a Muslim Kurdish minority. Its population in 2013 was estimated at 88,023.
In the course of their second northern Iraq offensive in August 2014, Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorists took large areas of Nineveh province and conquered Sinjar after defeating the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
Thereafter, the terrorists massacred more than 2,000 Izadi men and held women as slaves, which resulted to a mass exodus of residents. According to a UN report, 5,000 Izadi civilians were killed during Daesh offensive in August 2014.
In November 2015, Kurdish forces and Izadi fighters launched a major operation and liberated Sinjar from the control of Daesh.
