Baghdad accuses Turkey of artillery fire that killed nine civilians
Nine people were killed and twenty-three injured following artillery attacks on amusement parks in the autonomous region of Kurdistan. Iraq blames Turkey, but Ankara blames “terrorist organizations”.
Iraqis demonstrated on Wednesday night against Turkey’s military offensive. Here in the streets of Karbala in Iraqi Kurdistan.
AFP
Nine civilians, including children, were killed and 23 others injured in an artillery attack against Turkey in northern Iraq on Wednesday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Qassimi took an unusually tough tone against his Turkish neighbors, condemning the flagrant violation of his sovereignty by “Turkish forces” and accusing them of firing artillery. Autonomous Region of Kurdistan. The victims of the shooting were mostly “Iraqi Arab tourists, mainly from central and southern Iraq”, Mouchir Bachir, head of the Jakoh district, on the border with Turkey, told AFP.
This mountainous region of Kurdistan is a popular escape for central and southern Iraqis from the hot summer temperatures. However, a source at the Turkish Ministry of Defense assured AFP that there was “no information to report or confirm of artillery fire in this area”. For its part, Turkish diplomacy considered “this type of attack” carried out by “terrorist organizations”, calling on Iraq “not to publish press releases under the influence of terrorist propaganda”.
Ankara, which has had dozens of military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan for 25 years, launched a new military operation in mid-April against the Turkish-backed Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey describes as a group ” terrorist”. . its Western allies.
Amir Ali, spokesman for Jakob’s medical authorities, told AFP that nine people were killed and 23 injured in Wednesday’s shooting. At least three women, two children and three men were among the dead, he said earlier.
“Our children are dead”
In front of a hospital in Jakob, Hasan Tahsin Ali, with his head bandaged, told AFP that he miraculously survived the fire that swept through the park and its waters while visitors were resting for a while. “We are from the province of Babylon (center),” said the young man in a dull voice. “We had indiscriminate attacks against us, bodies in the water,” he adds. “Our young people are dead, our children are dead, who will we turn to? We have only God”. The Foreign Ministry “will summon the Turkish ambassador to Iraq” in accordance with the decisions of the National Security Ministerial Council chaired by the Iraqi Prime Minister.
At a meeting on Wednesday evening, the council demanded the withdrawal of Turkish armed forces from all Iraqi territory. He called for the “recall of Iraqi officials to Ankara for consultation, and a halt to the process of sending a new ambassador to Turkey”, according to a press release. Turkish military operations on Iraqi soil have complicated relations between the Iraqi central government and Ankara, one of Iraq’s main trading partners.
They are worthy of the Turkish Ambassador in Baghdad to regularly summon the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. But Iraqi denials are usually short-lived. In the evening, despite a large police force, a few dozen people demonstrated by burning a Turkish flag in front of the Turkish visa issuing center in Karbala (center), noted an AFP photographer.
In the capital Baghdad, protesters gathered outside a visa issuing center attached to the embassy, and one of the participants climbed onto the roof and lowered a Turkish flag, according to two security sources, allowing the police to stay away.
“Permanent Danger”
Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, has complicated relations with the PKK, as its presence in the region hampers its key trade ties with neighboring Turkey. “The clashes between the Turkish forces and the PKK in the border areas have become a threat to the lives of civilians and a permanent danger,” the Kurdistan regional government condemned in a statement on Wednesday.
On July 17, an armed drone – according to local Turkish Iraqi officials – targeted a car west of the city of Mosul (north), the capital of Nineveh, a northern province bordering Kurdistan. The driver and his four passengers, identified by Kurdistan security forces as PKK militants, were killed in the attack. Four PKK “militants” were killed in an attack by “Turkish military drones” in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to the authorities of this autonomous region.
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