PKK Urges Kurdish Groups to Unite against Iraq Militants

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which for years waged a deadly insurgency against Turkish authorities, called on all Kurdish armed groups Tuesday to unite against radical Islamist militants who have seized swathes of northern Iraq.

"Our efforts alone are not enough. There must be a joint (effort)" against the Islamic State (IS), the PKK's military leader Murat Karayilan said in remarks carried by the Radikal online newspaper.

His comments came after IS raised its black flag in the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar on Sunday after ousting the peshmerga troops of the Iraqi Kurdistan government, forcing thousands of people from their homes.

"Let's form a joint command. Let's make preparations and take IS out of the areas it occupied, including Sinjar. This is possible," Karayilan said.

Karayilan heads the military wing of the PKK, which has been involved in a now frozen peace process with Turkish authorities, in the absence of the PKK's leader Abdullah Ocalan who is jailed in a Turkish island prison.

The capture of Sinjar and several other towns at the weekend threatened to further integrate the Iraqi and Syrian halves of the "caliphate" IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed in June.

Karayilan urged Kurdish groups to join ranks and form a "national resistance front" to fight against the jihadists to liberate Sinjar.

"We can liberate Sinjar together but if not, we will be there as guerillas. We will not allow IS whatever it wants to do there. We will definitely prevent this. The people of Kurdistan must know that we can succeed," he added.

Karayilan also said peshmerga forces in northern Iraq could play a role: "Our southern brothers, the peshmerga command could join us. They are better equipped. We can create a significant force."

On Monday, Baghdad's air force and Kurdish fighters from Syria joined forces with Iraq's embattled peshmerga to push back the jihadists.