Shafaq News– Al-Sulaymaniyah

Former Peshmerga fighters in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Wednesday called for popular Kurdish mobilization and the opening of border crossings to support Rojava*, condemning renewed attacks on Kurdish areas in northern and eastern Syria.

The Peshmerga Veterans Association, which represents former members of the Peshmerga —the armed forces of the Kurdistan Region that historically fought for Kurdish autonomy and later played a central role in the fight against ISIS— denounced what it described as renewed assaults by armed groups linked to Damascus on Kurdish areas in Syria.

Speaking at a press conference in Al-Sulaymaniyah, association head Jamil Horami said Kurds in Rojava were once again facing “brutal attacks” by armed groups he linked to the so-called “new Syrian army.” He accused the factions of having previously carried out massacres against Kurds and killing dozens of civilians, citing what he described as clear complicity by their allies.

Horami urged Kurds inside and outside the Kurdistan Region to take to the streets with a unified message to pressure for an end to the attacks, calling on both the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to open border crossings to allow humanitarian and popular support to reach Rojava.

Over the past week, several cities across the Kurdistan Region have seen demonstrations in solidarity with Kurds in Syria. In Erbil, hundreds of protesters —including Syrian Kurds and civil society activists— held rallies outside the United Nations mission, the US consulate, and in the city center, demanding urgent international intervention to halt military operations in northern Syria.

Shafaq News correspondents reported that some protests led to temporary road blockages in parts of Erbil and Al-Sulaymaniyah, with demonstrators chanting slogans in support of Rojava and condemning clashes between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Similar rallies were also reported in Kirkuk, where protesters denounced the shelling of residential neighborhoods in Syria.

In Nineveh province, security sources said dozens of residents from the Sinjar district attempted to move toward the Iraq–Syria border via the closed Al-Faw crossing, responding to a mobilization call issued by the SDF.

Iraqi border guard forces blocked the crossing, citing security concerns and noting that Al-Faw is an unofficial route that was previously used during the fight against ISIS before being shut. Security deployments were also reinforced along the Sinjar border strip to prevent infiltration or illegal crossings.

The unrest came amid intensified fighting across northern and eastern Syria despite a ceasefire announced by the transitional president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa. Under the proposal, the SDF has four days to submit an implementation plan, while Syrian army units are to remain outside the centers of Hasakah and Qamishli.

The clashes have displaced thousands of people and killed about 25, including civilians, while the security of detention facilities holding thousands of ISIS members has come under heightened concern following the SDF’s withdrawal from supervision of Al-Hol camp and the Al-Aqtan and Al-Shaddadi prisons.

According to the US State Department, nearly 9,000 ISIS fighters are held in detention sites across Hasakah, Qamishli, and Raqqa.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani warned on Tuesday that escalating clashes between Syrian government forces and the SDF could create conditions for an ISIS resurgence, stressing that continued military confrontation would only deepen the crisis. He urged the US-led Coalition to take steps to prevent ISIS from re-emerging.

Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani has also repeatedly stressed the need to protect Kurdish rights in Syria and avoid solutions based on force, according to previous statements, calling for dialogue and international guarantees to prevent renewed cycles of violence.

Inside Syria, demonstrations have continued in Kurdish-majority areas, particularly in Qamishli in Hasakah province, where thousands protested against attacks on Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo and called for international intervention.

*Officially known as the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), is an autonomous region in northeastern Syria under the SDF control.