Two female journalists were killed and a man was injured on Friday in Iraqi Kurdistan in a drone strike targeting their vehicle, a bombing attributed to the Turkish military engaged against Turkish Kurdish fighters of the PKK, local officials told AFP.
“It is not the Turkish military,” the Turkish Ministry of Defense in Ankara told AFP when questioned about the bombing on Friday morning in the Sayyid Sadek area, in the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
However, an Iraqi security official, speaking anonymously, assured AFP that “a drone, likely belonging to the Turkish military, bombed a vehicle carrying journalists” in the Sayyid Sadek area east of Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest city in Kurdistan.
The alleged links of the victims with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or affiliated media entities were denied by officials in Iraq.
“The victims of the airstrike (…) are two journalists, not members of an armed group that would pose a threat to the security and stability of any country or region,” assured Kurdistan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Qubad Talabani, whose party directly governs Sulaymaniyah.
In a statement, he condemned “an unjustified killing” as well as a “flagrant violation of Iraqi territorial sovereignty.”
The bombing, which also injured one person, killed Gulistan Tara, a 40-year-old Kurdish journalist from Turkey, and Hero Bahadin, a 27-year-old Iraqi Kurdish video editor, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). They worked for the production company CHATR, which supplies content to two news channels funded by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to the same source.
Protests in Sulaymaniyah
Several dozen protesters gathered on Saturday in Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest city in the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, to denounce the drone strike.
About a hundred people gathered in a public park, holding portraits of the two women, according to an AFP journalist. “The martyrs will never die,” the crowd chanted.
“Turkish bombings affect everyone in Kurdistan; civilians are victims, life in the countryside has almost come to a halt because it’s impossible to live with strikes day and night, every minute, every hour,” lamented activist Robar Ahmed.
The Turkish military occasionally confirms bombings in Iraqi territory, where they regularly conduct ground and air operations against the PKK. The organization, engaged in an armed struggle against Turkish authorities since 1984, is classified as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies.
The Turkish Kurdish fighters have rear bases in the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, which has also hosted dozens of Turkish military bases for 25 years.
In March, Baghdad quietly classified the PKK as a “banned organization.” In mid-August, Turkey and Iraq signed a military cooperation agreement involving the establishment of joint command and training centers in the fight against the PKK.
Rahman Ghareeb, director of the METRO Center for Journalists’ Rights, denounced the “weak” stance of Iraq against Turkish military operations in the country against the PKK during the protest.
“Iraq and Kurdistan have entered into a security agreement with the Turkish side, which compels them to participate,” he accused.
With AFP
