A vehicle was bombed by a Turkish combat drone near the Serdeşt Camp in the main Yazidi settlement area of Shengal (Sinjar) in north-west Iraq on Tuesday. There was initially no information about the aftermath of the attack nor possible casualties. Security forces are on site and are investigating the attack.

The drone strike occurred at around 12 noon local time on a road in the Serdeşt plateau. Due to the force of the bombing, the car was thrown against rocks at the side of the road and immediately went up in flames, reported the RojNews agency based in South Kurdistan. Footage shows a burnt-out car wreck.

It is still unclear how many people were in the vehicle and whether they were civilians or possibly members of the Yazidi defence structures. A self-governing camp for displaced persons is located near the scene of the crime, where Yazidis who fled their villages into the mountains during the genocide by ISIS in 2014 live. Turkish drone attacks have also been carried out in the mentioned area in the past.

Under the pretext of “fighting the PKK”, Turkish warplanes and drones have repeatedly carried out airstrikes on Shengal since 2017. The specific targets are mostly institutions that were founded in the wake of the ISIS genocide – such as the administrative body “Shengal Democratic Autonomous Council” (MXDŞ) or the self-defence units YBŞ and YJŞ. The victims are mainly people from the civilian population – often survivors of the 2014 genocide.

The last known drone attack by Turkey in Shengal was carried out at the beginning of March, killing Mecdel Feqîr, a commander of Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ) and survivor of the ISIS genocide in 2014. The drone bombed a checkpoint near Til Êzêr where Feqîr was working. He was 32 years old and left behind a wife and son. A few days earlier, civilian Sadun Mirza Ali had been killed by a Turkish drone in Shengal. The man was the father of three children and worked as a driver for the autonomous administration’s committee for the martyrs. At the end of December, five workers from Rojava were killed in a drone attack in Shengal.