Turkmen tribe leader killed in drone strike in Diyala province

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The leader of the Turkmen Bayat tribe was killed on Sunday in a drone strike in Diyala’s Kifri district.

A Kurdistan24 reporter in Garmiyan reported that a drone strike took place near the market in the center of the Kifri at approximately 3:10 p.m.

As a result of the drone strike, a Turkmen tribe leader named Hussein Alush was killed.

As of now, no one has claimed responsibility for the drone strike.

Turkmen in Iraq form the third largest ethnic group in the country. They are estimated to make up 8% of the population of the Kurdistan Region. They are predominantly Sunni Muslims. Although similar to modern Turkish, the Turkmen language uses a more archaic form of Turkic linguistics.

Although a few large political groups, such as the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), claim to advocate for them, ethnic Turkmen are largely divided among multiple parties across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

The ethnic group draws ancestral ties to their kin in neighboring Turkey, which has long sought to enhance the interests of Turkmen in Iraq.