Security

Suspected Turkish airstrike targets refugee camp in Iraq's disputed Makhmour

The Makhmour refugee camp hosts some 12,000 Kurdish refugees who fled Turkey into the Kurdistan Region in the mid-1990s, a decade of Turkish-led violence marked by extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and depopulation of thousands of villages in Kurdish provinces of the country.

Halgurd Sherwani 2021/09/03 11:19

Shrapnel found at the site of a suspected Turkish airstrike on a refugee camp in Iraq's disputed Makhmour district, Sept. 3, 2021. (Photo: social media)

Iraq PKK Turkey Refugee camp Kurdistan Region Erbil

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A suspected Turkish airstrike early Friday targeted a refugee camp in the disputed Makhmour district south of the Kurdistan Region, local sources told Kurdistan 24.

The attack took place around 8:20 a.m. local time and only resulted in material damages to a housing unit at the camp, the source told a Kurdistan 24 correspondent in the area.

There has been no official comment on the incident.

Makhmour is a town 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil.

The camp receives regular assistance from the United Nations.

Turkey claims the PKK gets its recruits from the Makhmour camp, which is allegedly administered by affiliates of the armed group. Turkey, the EU, and the US have designated the PKK as a “terrorist organization.”