KDP Calls for Special Probe Into Deaths of Two Pirde Youths

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - The Kurdistan Democratic Party's Kirkuk and Garmian-Khanaqin Organizational Bureau has called on Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Zaidi to urgently establish a special and impartial committee to investigate the deaths of two young Kurds during a security operation near Pirde, as political figures in Kirkuk pressed for answers over how civilians became casualties.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Sept. 29, the KDP bureau described the deaths of Mohammed Hemin and Murad Zana as a source of grief and said protecting civilian lives must remain a priority for all security forces during counterterrorism operations.

The bureau said official security forces have a responsibility to protect citizens, their lives and their property, and must exercise the highest degree of caution while carrying out operations.

It stressed that civilians must be clearly distinguished from militants during confrontations with terrorist organizations.

"We call on Ali Zaidi, Prime Minister of Iraq and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, to urgently form a special and impartial committee to investigate the causes and facts surrounding the Pirde incident," the statement said.

The KDP bureau also called for the findings to be made public and for legal measures to be taken against anyone found negligent.

It concluded by extending condolences to the families of Mohammed Hemin and Murad Zana.

The call was echoed by political figures in Kirkuk.

Hassan Majid, head of the KDP faction in the Kirkuk Provincial Council, told Kurdistan24 that operations against ISIS were necessary but said they must not result in civilian casualties.

"We support any operation aimed at confronting ISIS, but it is unacceptable to carry out an operation inside a market where civilians become victims," Majid said.

He called for a thorough investigation and argued that greater coordination with security committees in Pirde could have helped prevent the deaths.

Majid said innocent children should not be killed under the pretext of operations targeting ISIS and urged the authorities to establish clearly what happened.

Rasul Raouf, a member of the Political Bureau of the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party, also called for scrutiny of the incident.

Raouf told Kurdistan24 that he believed the two young men had been unjustly killed and criticized the security forces operating in Kirkuk.

He questioned who had authorized the operation, saying the administrative unit, Kirkuk governor and deputy governor had not been aware of it.

Raouf also acknowledged that ISIS remains a persistent threat to Kirkuk and its residents, but challenged the way the operation had been conducted.

The political calls for an investigation come as Iraqi authorities say an official inquiry is already underway.

Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, told Kurdistan24 earlier Tuesday that investigations into the deaths of the two young Kurds had not yet been completed.

"Once the investigations are completed, we will announce the results to the public," al-Numan said.

He did not give a timetable for the inquiry or provide details about its composition.

Questions surrounding the incident intensified after the family of Mohammed Hemin found his body at the forensic medicine unit of Azadi Hospital in Kirkuk on Tuesday morning.

Kurdistan24 correspondent Soran Kamaran reported that Mohammed had gone missing during fighting near Pirde on Sunday, Sept. 27.

His family said Iraqi security forces had denied since Monday that he was in their custody. When relatives later located his body at the hospital, they learned that it had been transferred there by security forces.

The family has refused to receive the body because, according to its account, Mohammed had been registered as an ISIS militant.

His relatives strongly reject that designation.

They say Mohammed was a minor with no connection to ISIS and allege that security forces killed him by mistake during the operation before portraying him as a militant.

Those allegations have not yet been established by the official investigation.

The confrontation began Sunday when Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service launched an operation against ISIS militants near Pirde.

Kurdistan24's initial English report on the operation cited Iraq's Security Media Cell as saying two ISIS militants were killed, another was captured, one civilian was killed and two Counter-Terrorism Service personnel were wounded.

Subsequent Kurdistan24 reporting identified the two Kurdish youths at the center of the current investigation as Mohammed Hemin and Murad Zana.

The dispute now centers not on whether an anti-ISIS operation took place, but on how the two young Kurds died, whether proper precautions were taken to protect civilians, and why Mohammed was reportedly classified as an ISIS militant after his death.

The KDP bureau and Kirkuk political figures are demanding that those questions be answered through an impartial process.

Iraqi authorities, for their part, say their investigation remains open and that the results will be disclosed once it is complete.

Until those findings are released, responsibility for the deaths and the precise circumstances surrounding them remain under investigation.