December 2014 Sinjar offensive

A Peshmerga commander based in Sinjar in northern Iraq has said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is maintaining its presence in Iraq's Sinjar region despite Turkey's calls for its evacuation, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 19 signaled a military operation into the Iraqi town of Sinjar, vowing that Turkey “can enter one night suddenly.”

Ankara has offered condolences to Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani over the killing of Peshmerga troops in a Turkish airstrike on April 26, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

The next stages of the recently concluded Euphrates Shield Operation will be broader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said April 5, suggesting that Turkey would move on areas in Iraq.

Speaking in a joint interview with NTV and Star, Erdoğan described the Euphrates Shield Operation as the first stage of Turkey's counter-terrorism road map, saying expanded stages would follow.        

Take a look at the Turkey-Syria-Iraq map. Put one end of a compass between Mosul and Hasakah. Widen the other arm of the compass centimeter by centimeter… Draw a circle. Keep the radius of this circle at 150 to 200 kilometers. The problem is there.

Turkish and American troops alongside the Free Syrian Army could perfectly oust jihadists from Raqqa and that there is no reason to include the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the struggle, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told U.S. President Barack Obama.

About 40 tunnels were uncovered by Kurdish forces who liberated Sinjar, a town in north-west Iraq this month. The town was under Islamic State rule for over a year.

The tunnels found had sleeping quarters, electricity, sandbags, American-made bomb making tools, medicine and copies of the Koran, as Daily Mail reports.

In photos: Hürriyet reporters photograph 'ghost town' Sinjar, recently freed of ISIL

In photos: Hürriyet reporters photograph 'ghost town' Sinjar, recently freed of ISIL

The town of Sinjar has become a ghost town since the departure of Islamic State and Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in early November.