The PKK terrorist organization will establish a new military headquarters within the Makhmur district of Irbil in northern Iraq, Anadolu Agency reported yesterday.

Amid Turkey's strong objections to the PKK's presence near the Sinjar region in northern Iraq, which has created tension between the Iraqi central government and Ankara in recent months, the terrorist organization has allegedly decided to establish another military headquarter in Irbil's Makhmur district.

Previously, Northern Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani emphasized the destabilizing influence of the PKK in Sinjar and urged the terrorist group to pull out of the region, threatening the possible use of force against them if they did not. "Their [the PKK's] existence will not provide stability to the region. We expect them to retreat," he had said. In contrast to the KRG, the Iraqi government had decided to allocate funds from its 2017 budget to the PKK's Yazidi branch, known as the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ), to strengthen the terrorist group, though they have announced that they have stopped giving salary to units, following Turkey's intense diplomatic pressure.

According to information obtained from KRG security sources, the PKK dug ditches and established security check points in Makhmur to prevent the entrance of local peshmerga and KRG security forces into the area. The situation has created tension between the KRG and the PKK terrorists.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, the Makhmur district governor said that the PKK recruits new terrorists with eight newly built quarters in the district. "Even women, elders and children were forced to receive military training," he said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, has been carrying out a decades-old armed campaign against the Turkish state.