Shafaq News- Nineveh

Turkmen leaders in Iraq's Nineveh province on Saturday rejected plans to pull Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) units from checkpoints and entrances to their areas, warning that housing construction is spreading onto farmland that feeds the province.

At a press conference, the community's representatives urged authorities to keep fighters of the PMF's 30th and 34th brigades in place, arguing that these units know the local terrain and have helped keep the area stable since it was retaken from ISIS.

The representatives also called for the cancellation of farmland allocations to housing associations made while armed groups controlled the area. They asked that new housing go instead to the uplands of Hammam Al-Alil and Al-Atshana, where the land is unfit for farming, and that the fertile land around Tel Keppe, Bartella and Al-Hamdaniya be protected.

Earlier today, hundreds of protesters in Bartella blocked the main Mosul-Erbil highway to oppose handing over checkpoints to local police and moving the 30th Brigade away from the entrances and exits of the Nineveh Plains.

The Nineveh Plains lie east and north of Mosul and are home to Christians, Yazidis, Shabak, Turkmen and other minorities. Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region both claim parts of the area under Article 140 of Iraq's constitution, which covers disputed territories.

The 30th Brigade, known locally as the Shabak PMF, has been deployed across the Plains since ISIS was driven out in 2017. Many Shabak see it as their main protection.

Christian groups have long accused the brigade of blocking the return of displaced residents to Bartella. In 2019, the US Treasury sanctioned its former commander, Waad Qado. Baghdad also tried to remove the brigade in 2019 and 2022, angering Shabak leaders.

The security dispute is tied to a fight over land in Qaza Fakhra, Jliyokhan and Bazwaya, villages on the eastern edge of Mosul. On June 30, Nineveh's Provincial Council voted to lift building restrictions on registered private land around the city. About 35,000 families hold deeds there, and the dispute goes back nearly two decades. Shabak council member Mohammed Aref cited Article 23 of the constitution, which bars demographic change in these areas. He also warned that more than 150 Shabak homes could be demolished.