Kurdistan Region condemns Turkish airstrikes which killed seven civilians
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a statement on Wednesday condemned the Turkish airstrikes that killed seven civilians on the Kurdistan Region's border.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a statement on Wednesday condemned the Turkish airstrikes that killed seven civilians on the Kurdistan Region's border.
Turkish warplanes killed seven civilians in two separate airstrikes in a rural area of the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok Province on Tuesday night.
“The people were visiting their fields as part of their daily routine. The Turkish warplanes shelled the area claiming [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK fighters were present in the area. Unfortunately, most of them died,” the statement reads.
On top of condemning the airstrikes, the KRG asked Turkey “to stop these airstrikes and not to harm the people of the Kurdistan Region, as well as preserve the principles of being neighbors.”
Warshin Salman, the director of the Sheladiz district of Duhok which the jets targeted, said the slain civilians were from two nearby villages, Sidan and Kera Derin, near the border with Turkey.
Salman explained that one group of the victims (four people) were in the mountainous area to harvest their crops, and the other group of three was fishing in a closeby water stream called Marki when Turkish bombs hit them.
The region controlled by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) often comes under Turkish fire, both from the air and ground.
State-funded Turkish Anadolu news agency on Tuesday said Turkish warplanes killed three PKK fighters.
Meanwhile, the privately-owned CNN Turk TV put the number at seven, adding the airstrikes were conducted in the Zab region where Sheladiz is located.
It was not clear if the airstrikes the Turkish outlets were referring to were the same that killed the civilians.
A press release on the Turkish army's website read that the air force attacked PKK camps, adding it destroyed arm depots and shelters but did not mention any deaths.
Turkey has been staging an air campaign on PKK targets since mid-2015 after a two-year ceasefire and peace talks between both sides collapsed.
In the past two years, similar airstrikes have displaced people from scores of villages.
An attack in August 2015 killed eight civilians, including a pregnant woman in the Zargeli village of Erbil Province where Turkey claimed a PKK camp was located.
Editing by G.H. Renaud
(Additional reporting by Ari Khalidi)