Baghdad joins KRG in condemning Turkish airstrikes in Kurdistan Region

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari strongly condemned Turkish airstrikes late Tuesday night which killed four civilians in the Choman district of the Kurdistan Region.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari strongly condemned Turkish airstrikes late Tuesday night which killed four civilians in the Choman district of the Kurdistan Region.

"The ministry deplores the continuation of these abuses against the defenseless civilians among our children in Kurdistan, abuses that do not serve the development of relations between the countries," said al-Jaafari in a statement released on Thursday that rejected "the presence of any troops on Iraqi territory or the attempt to carry out military operations by any neighboring country."

The statement criticized "the continuing attacks and abuses on the Iraqi border by the Turkish forces, the latest of which is the bombing of the villages of Mawan, Qassan, and Sarkinan, in the province of Erbil, and which led to the death of a number of unarmed civilians."

Earlier on Thursday, a KRG statement explained that four young Kurdish males who were celebrating the Kurdish New Year were “martyred” due to the airstrikes which hit the Balakayati area.

“We express our concerns over the targeting of villages and inhabited areas in the Kurdistan Region,” the statement said, adding that the airstrikes were targeting fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), headquartered in the Qandil Mountains within the region.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) identified the four as party members named Shera Mahmoud, Kaka Mustafa Warti, Mohammed Ismael Warti, and Darbaz Mohammed.

According to a Kurdistan 24 correspondent in Balakayati, at least 10 PKK fighters were also killed in the airstrikes.

Turkish bombardment of the vast border areas of Turkey, Iran, and the Kurdistan Region have become commonplace since the peace process between Turkey and the PKK broke down in July 2015.

The PKK took up arms against Ankara in the 1980s to demand more rights for the Kurds in a conflict that has killed thousands of people on both sides.

The KRG urged the PKK to withdraw from their posts on the Kurdistan Region’s border, so civilians, who have been targeted several times before, do not become casualties of war.

A statement released on Friday by the PKK’s umbrella group, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Co-presidency announced the PKK's withdrawal from the Kurdish-Ezidi city of Sinjar (Shingal), claiming the area is now free of security threats.

Before the airstrikes, the Iraqi Foreign Minister said on Wednesday that his country would not allow the presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil, contrary to previous statements by officials from both countries which alluded to a future joint Iraqi-Turkish campaign against the PKK.