At least six people, including three civilians, were killed in drone strikes targeting Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on Saturday, with local officials and rebels blaming Turkey for the attack.
Turkey regularly conducts attacks in northern Iraq, where the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has bases and training camps.
Saturday’s drone strikes targeted mountainous areas in Chamchamal district, west of the city of Sulaimaniyah, officials said.
There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.
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“Two Turkish drones attacked twice,” said Hemin Bahjat, the mayor of the village of Agjalar. “The second strike hit a pickup truck, killing five people, including two civilians.”
A medical source confirmed that the bodies of two civilians were brought to Chamchamal Hospital.
A PKK spokesman said: “Three … the guerrillas were targeted by Turkish armed drones and heavily wounded. When civilians rushed to their aid and took them to hospital, they were also targeted by drones. Three. Two civilians lost their lives along with the injured guerrillas.”
Later in the day, another suspected Turkish drone strike hit a vehicle at the Makhmoor refugee camp, killing one resident, camp director Nechirvan Mahmoud told AFP.
The camp, which houses Kurdish refugees who fled Turkey in the 1990s, has been a frequent target of attacks by the Turkish military, who claim it has become a recruitment ground for the PKK.
Turkey’s repeated operations targeting Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq have tested ties between major trading partners Baghdad and Ankara.
He also has complicated relations with officials in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, who have an uneasy relationship with the PKK.
In December, three Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Iraq, for which Ankara blamed the PKK.
Last August, at least three people were killed in a Turkish airstrike on a clinic in northwestern Iraq where a wounded PKK officer was being treated.
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