Turkey President, PM 'concerned' about Peshmerga casualties in Turkish airstrikes
Turkish President and Prime Minister in separate phone calls on Wednesday expressed their concern to the Kurdistan Region President about Peshmerga casualties caused by Turkish airstrikes on Shingal, according to a statement by the Kurdistan Region Presidency (KRP).
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkish President and Prime Minister in separate phone calls on Wednesday expressed their concerns to the Kurdistan Region President about Peshmerga casualties caused by Turkish airstrikes on Shingal, according to a statement by the Kurdistan Region Presidency (KRP).
Recep Tayyib Erdogan, Turkish President and Binali Yildirim Turkish PM contacted the Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani and expressed their condolences to the families of the six Peshmerga fighters who lost their lives as a result of Turkish airstrikes on the positions of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Shingal, southeastern Kurdistan Region.
Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday in an unusually intense operation, killing six Peshmerga fighters and wounding eight, some critically.
Turkish officials emphasized that the airstrikes on Peshmerga position were not intentional.
Airstrikes on Kurdish positions in the nearby northeastern Syria killed 28 US-allied People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters as of Wednesday and wounded 19 others, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of Peshmerga Affairs on Wednesday summoned the Turkish Consul General in Erbil over “unacceptable” Turkish airstrikes that targeted Peshmerga forces in Shingal.
Acting Minister of Peshmerga Karim Sinajri in a statement said that the airstrike against Peshmerga forces were unacceptable, emphasizing that such airstrikes must not be repeated.
Mehmet Akif Inam, the Turkish Consul General in Erbil expressed Turkey’s concern over the “mistaken” airstrike and sent condolences to the families of the Peshmerga martyrs and expressed Turkey’s readiness to receive the wounded Peshmerga fighters in its hospitals.
American officials said Turkey had informed the United States less than an hour in advance that it intended to carry out the bombing raids in the crowded airspace over northern Syria and Iraq.
American officials said that they had asked Turkey not to proceed without proper coordination, but that the request was ignored.
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said the United States was “deeply concerned” about the Turkish airstrikes, which were “not approved” by the United States-led coalition that is fighting the Islamic State.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry denounced the attacks in the Sinjar area as a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu defended the legitimacy of airstrikes on Kurds.
Cavusoglu said his country informed the US-led Coalition forces’ coordination center in Qatar “two hours” before the massive assault which the Turkish army claimed killed 70 Kurdish fighters in both Syria and Iraq.
The Turkish strikes pointed to continuing and deep tensions between the United States and Turkey over how to carry out the campaign against the Islamic State.
Editing by Ava Homa