Kurdish militia PKK ready to join battle for Mosul

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has said its fighters are willing to participate in the offensive to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State group control.

Sarhad Warto, head of media relations at the Kurdistan Communities Union - a PKK affiliated group - told NRT that while no official request had been made for the Turkish-Kurdish militants to join the battle they were ready to do so.

"[It is] because of the cleanliness of our fight, the residents of Mosul have called for the PKK's participation," he said.

Operations against IS in Mosul - lead by the Iraqi army and Iraqi-Kurdish Peshmerga - began on Monday.

Turkish role?

Objections to the participation of Turkey - which the PKK has been locked in intermittent conflict with since the 1970s - have also been expressed by Baghdad. The Iraqi government is particularly angered by the presence of an estimated 700 Turkish troops in the northern Iraqi town of Bashiqa has caused anger.

Speaking to NRT Warto also expressed objection to Ankara's participation, instead calling on "international assistance" for the PKK which has previously fought against IS in northern Iraq.

However, objections to the PKK's ongoing presence in northern Iraq have also been expressed by the Kurdish Regional Government.

It is because of the cleanliness of our fight, the residents of Mosul have called for the PKK's participation. - Sarhad Warto, the Kurdistan Communities Union

The PKK played a decisive role in pushing back IS from the area in late 2014 but has not left the region, something the Erbil-based Kurdistan Regional Government regards as a breach of its sovereignty.

Both the PKK and its Yezidi offshoot, the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), expressed a previous willingness to fight in Mosul operations earlier this year, however no invitation has been forthcoming.

For its part, Turkey is said to have held secret talks with Washington earlier this year seeking assurances that the Kurdish separatist group - officially outlawed in Turkey - plays no part in the battle.

The continued presence of Turkish troops in Bashiqa in northern Iraq is in part intended to stop PKK forces from travelling to Mosul from their current positions around Sinjar and the Kandil mountains.