Calm prevailed in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq on Saturday after PKK terrorists withdrew from the district, according to an Iraqi police officer.
"PKK gunmen withdrew from central Sinjar late last night and moved toward Mount Sinjar," the officer told Anadolu Agency (AA), requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said the PKK terrorists had left the area after protests from locals.
"Iraqi police and army deployed extra forces in the neighborhoods of Sinjar after terrorists pulled out of the area," he added.
According to eyewitnesses, dozens of Sinjar residents demonstrated on Friday to demand an end to armed clashes in the district.
Clashes between Iraqi forces and PKK terrorists have forced nearly 1,700 families to flee their homes in Sinjar in recent days.
Iraq's military is seeking to apply an agreement reached between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for the withdrawal of PKK fighters.
The Sinjar region has also been a target of Turkish airstrikes on the rear bases of the PKK. The KRG has an uneasy relationship with the PKK terrorists, whose presence harms the stability and security in the region and complicates the region's lucrative trade ties with Turkey.
The PKK terrorist group often hides out in northern Iraq, just across Turkey's southern border, to plot terrorist attacks in Turkey. The Turkish military regularly conducts cross-border operations in northern Iraq.
Amid increasing clashes with the PKK terrorist group in the Sinjar district of Iraq's Mosul province, the Iraqi military launched a large-scale operation for the first time since the 2020 Sinjar Agreement, with one of the main objectives being the elimination of PKK terrorists.
Iraq recently conducted a military operation to clear the region of PKK terrorists in response to the group's increasing terror attacks.
Last week, heavy fighting erupted between the Iraqi army and the PKK-affiliated Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ).
Despite sporadic clashes between the army and YBŞ in recent months, there were no decisive moves taken before Sunday to implement the 2020 deal.
The presence of PKK terrorists in Sinjar causes a security threat for the civilians in the region.
Displaced Yazidis want peace and stability to be restored in the area so they can return after spending eight years in refugee camps.
Although an agreement was signed between the Iraqi government and northern Iraq's KRG on Oct. 9, 2020, the terrorist organization had stepped up its activities.
The PKK continues its presence in the district as the Sinjar Agreement has not been fully implemented yet.
Daesh terrorists attacked Sinjar, a region with a Yazidi-majority population, in August 2014. The terrorist group kidnapped and killed thousands of people, including women and children, or detained them in areas under its control. PKK terrorists managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in 2014 under the pretext of protecting the Yazidi community from Daesh terrorists.
The tension in the region increased after Baghdad announced on Oct. 9, 2020, a "historic deal" with northern Iraq's KRG to bolster the federal government's authority in Sinjar.
After the Daesh attack in 2014, most Yazidis had to leave their homes and flee to various parts of the country, including the KRG area. Some of the Yazidi victims also took refuge in Turkey. The PKK abducted and forcibly recruited Yazidi children in Sinjar. The Yazidi people held many protests for the release of their children kidnapped by the terrorist group. The recent clashes have seen Sinjar residents once again displaced from their homes.
Sinjar has a strategic position as it is some 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Mosul and close to the Turkish-Syrian border. The terrorist group aims to create a terror corridor between the YPG/PKK in northern Syria and Iraq's northern Qandil region.