A man was killed in a drone strike blamed on Turkey in northern Iraq, a local official in autonomous Kurdistan, a sector of Turkish operations against Turkish Kurdish PKK fighters, said Friday. The Turkish army episodically confirms its bombings in neighboring Iraqi territory, where it regularly carries out land and air operations against positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in autonomous Kurdistan of Iraq but also in the mountainous region of Sinjar, more West. In armed struggle against the Turkish authorities since 1984, the PKK is classified as a
“terrorist”
group by Ankara and its Western allies.
The strike took place Thursday evening near a small village but the victim was found Friday morning, told AFP Ihsan Chalabi, mayor of the Sidakan district, a mountainous area of Iraqi Kurdistan, near the border junction with Turkey and Iran. He spoke of
“a Turkish drone strike against a car”
, specifying that
“the body belongs to a resident of the region who is part of the Peshmerga”
, the local Kurdish security forces.
Fight against the PKK
For 25 years, Turkey has installed military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight against the PKK, which also has rear bases in this region. At the beginning of April, a
“senior military official”
from the PKK was killed by a Turkish army drone that targeted his vehicle in the Sinjar region, according to the counterterrorism services of autonomous Kurdistan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected in Iraq on Monday. He did not rule out a visit, on the way back, to Erbil, capital of autonomous Kurdistan since 1991. Erdogan's last official visit to Iraq dates back to March 2011. As prime minister, he urged the Iraqi authorities to cooperate with his country in the fight against the PKK.
In March, Iraqi Defense Minister Thabet al-Abassi ruled out
"joint military operations"
against the PKK but stressed that Turkey and Iraq
"will work to establish a joint intelligence coordination center
. "
Central power in Baghdad and the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan have been accused of tolerating Turkey's military activities in order to preserve their close economic ties.