ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Jets struck the all-Yezidi Shingal Protection Units (YBS) militia on Wednesday, killing five militia members, according to Iraqi security sources.

Jets struck a YBS position in the Shingal village of Dugure, north of Mount Shingal at approximately 11:00 am on Wednesday - killing and injuring militia members, Qassim Khalaf, a former member of the Khanasor Local Council told Rudaw English on Wednesday.

Five YBS members were killed after one of their vehicles was targeted by an unidentified airstrike in Dugure, known in Arabic as Hatein, according to Iraqi Security Media Cell. It said the strikes took place at 11:35 am.

According to Rudaw's reporter on the ground, the strike was conducted by a Turkish jet, leaving a vehicle carrying YBS members destroyed. Locals are anxious and fearful, the reporter added. However, neither the Cell nor Khalaf identified the strike as Turkish.

Turkey has previously conducted airstrikes in the Shingal region, the Yezidi homeland devastated during the war against the Islamic State (ISIS).

The YBS was established in Shingal, reportedly with the assistance of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), a Kurdish guerrilla organization fighting for greater political and cultural rights for the largely repressed Kurdish minority in Turkey.

Since liberation from ISIS in December 2015, Shingal has been under the control by a variety of armed groups, including the YBS, the Iraqi army, the Peshmerga, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic).

A Twitter account close to the Turkish army claimed 8 members of the YBS were killed.

Rudaw