Some media outlets affiliated to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Southern Kurdistan continue to spread manipulative news in order to leave the handover of Kirkuk and surrounding settlements to Hashd al-Shaabi off the agenda.

Claiming that “PKK and Hashd al-Shaabi formed an alliance in Shengal”, KDP media continues making Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ) a target for the Turkish state.

Representing the YBŞ and some Êzidî officials as “PKK members” or “former PKK members”, KDP media also maintains its indifference to the flight of the peshmerga forces from the region.

Ignoring all the other developments taking place in the region, two KDP-affiliated TV stations focus on “the PKK presence in Shengal” in recent days.

Recalling the KDP’s provision of coordinates to the Turkish state for aerial strikes in Shengal in April, political observers in the region state that the related news articles by KDP’s media outlets aim to make Shengal a target once again.

KDP forces handed Shengal over to ISIS on 3 August 2014, and to Hashd al-Shaabi on 16 October 2017. The local military force YBŞ that had cleared Shengal of ISIS with the support of HPG and YJA-Star guerrillas in November 2015, did not retreat from the areas under their control and stopped the advance of Hashd al-Shaabi militia, also known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), during October’s aggression on the Kurdish region.