PUK commander says they were ordered to retreat from Shingal on 14-August-2014

What happened on August 3, 2014?

I will talk about a small part of the events that happened on that black day.
• We were in the Rabi’a subdistrict.

• In the early morning, we heard that several villages in Shingal [district] had fallen.

• By noon, the forces in Shingal started retreating without resistance.

• In the afternoon, Snuni and the area around it was abandoned without a fight.

• The forces from Shingal and Snuni areas that were retreating pass us by heading to Sihela without stopping.

• Around noon, I was contacted by PUK offices and PUK members in Shingal, Snuni and Khanasor and was told that conditions are dire and that there is no one to defend. They said “we and thousands of people will come to Rabi’a if you stay there. Otherwise if ISIS comes to Rabi’a through Awinat, [we would be surrounded and] they would massacre us.” I said “we are here and will remain here; even if everyone leaves, I will not, even if it means my end.”

• The people from Shingal, Snuni and Khanasor headed towards us.

• ISIS forces where approaching us through Awinat. Clashes started and we made stopped their march to a halt.

• The [Peshmerga] forces in Rabi’a gathered and left as well.

• I requested them to stay, because people where on their way towards us and we can’t leave the place for ISIS. But my pleas were fruitless.

• I made my superiors aware that the force in our area was about to retreat. They said that they would into it and get back to me immediately.

• They called me back after half an hour and said that I should retreat. I told them “how can I retreat when the people are coming this way and ISIS is approaching.” They said “we are ordering you to retreat.” I told them that “civilians, women and children are on their way to come here, I will not leave them defenseless.”

• They called me again after 10 minutes and ordered me to retreat again. I refused to retreat […] They then called my deputy who belonged to Unit 80 [which belongs to KDP], and he and his Peshmerga retreated and left me.

• ISIS launched and attack and we resisted. I asked YPG command to send us more forces, because our own forces had retreated […] Within a short period we got reinforcements from YPG with Rojava Asaiysh.

• The first people from Shingal reached us and ISIS launched a third attack and we countered it.

• YPG command told us that Peshmarga forces, in addition to the area between Rabi’a and Shingal, they have also retreated from the areas between Rabi’a and Sihela. And that ISIS forces are approaching Sihela and Rojava border from Zummar, and fear that they will enter Rojava from there because they don’t have enough forces there. I only had 27 combatants left with me. I asked them to leave some forces because the area is very wide. They agreed and left me 10 YPG and 4 YPJ members along with a 12mm Doshka with 85 rounds.

• As they left, ISIS launched andother attack. Two YPG fighter gor martyred, a father and his son from Derik. Two other YPG fighers gor injured. Some of them took back the dead and injured back to Rojava and we had only 4 YPG fighers with their Doshka left with us.

• ISIS militants reached us from Shingal and we stopped them with our small force. Soon after, they flanked us and entered Rabi’a and surrounded us.

• I asked the Peshmerga with me to keep one bullet to commit suicide with in case they were about to get captured.

• This situation lasted for more than 7 hours. On one hand ISIS was pressing us more and more, and on the other, some were blaming me for not retreating. One even told me that it was all my fault and that he was going to shoot me in the head.

• Things were getting worse and ISIS kept pushing. The civilians had escaped long before that. That’s why I decided to retreat through Rabi’a, which by then was full of ISIS.

• […] We got into our vehicles and drove through Rabi’a towards Rojava. I was driving and the others were shooting out the windows. Four Peshmerga got injured. Three of them in my own car. We fought our way to Rojava.

• YPG took our wounded to the hospital in Derik in Jizra Canton. The rest of us stayed with the YPG at the Tel Kochar border-crossing.

In the end, we managed to save the lives of 11,000 of our Yazidi brothers and sisters from a massacre.

Note:
Because of refusing the retreat order, some officials interrogated me several times and was told that I should have obeyed the order from my superiors.
My reply was that I had saved the lives of thousands Yzidis.
They told me “no problem, thousands of Yazidis had already go killed, a few thousands more doesn’t matter.”
One official had said “If I could, I would execute Qadir Khorani.”
Do I deserve to be executed or he does?

Source: https://t.co/79ZVmP6epZ?amp=1