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Demonstrators burn the Turkish flag in front of a Turkish visa center in Karbala, following the missile bombing
Signs of a diplomatic row erupted between Iraq and Turkey following nine civilians were killed in an artillery attack on a tourist resort in the northern Iraqi province of Dohuk.
Iraqi television reported that “heavy artillery shelling” hit a resort in the city of Zakho, on the border between the Kurdistan region of Iraq and Turkey. The state news agency said all the dead were tourists.
Iraqi officials blamed Turkish forces.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi tweeted that “Turkish forces flagrantly violated Iraq’s sovereignty.”
Al-Kazemi directed an official declaration of mourning in Iraq today, Thursday, for the lives of those killed by the Turkish bombing. According to a statement by the General Secretariat of the Iraqi Council of Ministers.
On Wednesday, Turkey rejected allegations by Iraqi officials and state media that it carried out an attack on a mountain resort in Dohuk.
On Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey had not carried out any attacks targeting civilians in the Iraqi province of Dohuk, and that the Iraqi authorities should not fall into this “trap.”
Speaking to the state-run TRT station, he added that Turkish military operations in Iraq have always been once morest the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). And that the attack on Dohuk was carried out by terrorists.
Turkey indicates that PKK forces carried out the attack.
picture released, YouTube
Hospitals in the region witnessed a state of alert.
And the Ministerial Council for National Security, headed by Al-Kazemi, decided to direct the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the Turkish ambassador to Iraq and inform him of Baghdad’s condemnation of the incident.
The Council also decided to recall the Iraqi Chargé d’Affairs from Ankara; For the purpose of consultation, and stopping the procedures for sending a new ambassador to Turkey.
The Council demanded that Turkey make an official apology and withdraw its military forces from all Iraqi lands.
And the Ministerial Council for National Security, headed by Al-Kazemi, decided to direct the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the Turkish ambassador to Iraq and inform him of Baghdad’s condemnation of the incident.
The Council also decided to recall the Iraqi Chargé d’Affairs from Ankara; For the purpose of consultation, and stopping the procedures for sending a new ambassador to Turkey.
The Council demanded that Turkey make an official apology and withdraw its military forces from all Iraqi lands.
The Council also directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare a file on “the repeated Turkish attacks on Iraqi sovereignty and the security of Iraqis” and to submit a complaint in this regard to the United Nations Security Council.
Yesterday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing regret over the incident, but said it was a terrorist attack.
The ministry offered its condolences to the Iraqi government, people and relatives of the victims, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded.
The statement stressed that Turkey opposes any attack targeting civilians, and that it “combats terrorism in a manner consistent with international law, with great consideration for the lives of civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
The statement also said that Turkey is ready to “take all steps to reveal the truth.”
The ministry called on the Iraqi authorities to cooperate to reveal who it named the real perpetrators of the attack, and asked them “not to make statements under the influence of the rhetoric and propaganda” of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
“The victims are tourists from the Arabs of Iraq”
The head of the Zakho region, Mushir Bashir, had said that most of the victims were “tourists from Iraq’s Arabs, mostly from the center and south of the country”, and blamed the forces across the border.
“Turkey bombed the village twice today,” AFP quoted him as saying yesterday.
Bashir added that the victims were tourists who came to the mountain village of Barkh in the Zakho region to escape the high temperatures in the south of the country.
Amir Ali, a health official in Zakho, told reporters that the dead were two children, three men and three women.
The Kurdish Minister of Health said that among the victims were children, including a one-year-old child.
Turkey launched a new offensive in northern Iraq in April, called “Operation Clo-Loc”, and said it was targeting fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkey regularly launches air strikes on northern Iraq, and has sent commandos to support its attacks, as part of a long-running campaign in Iraq and Syria to confront the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Ankara classifies both groups as terrorist groups.
The PKK has been carrying out armed attacks on the Turkish state since 1984.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in a conflict that once focused mainly on southeastern Turkey, where the PKK sought to establish a national homeland.
The presence of the PKK in the Kurdistan region of Iraq has complicated the vital trade relations between Iraq and Turkey.
