The Turkish ambassador will be called upon by Iraq’s president to discuss the airstrikes that occurred in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi president announced Tuesday that he will summon Turkey’s ambassador and hand him a formal letter of protest over recent Turkish airstrikes on Iraqi territory.
The formal objection was made one day following an attack on a military airport located in Arbat, which is situated southeast of the city of Sulaymaniyah in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Local officials reported that three individuals from the region’s counterterrorism force lost their lives in the incident, while three members of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces sustained injuries.
“I cannot reword”
He stated that the aggression was directed towards both innocent civilians and military and security headquarters.
Rashid is a member of the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) party, whose primary headquarters is located in Sulaymaniyah.
Turkey did not provide an immediate comment.
The airport that was specifically chosen had recently been renovated to support the training of anti-terrorism units associated with the PUK, which is one of the two main political parties in the region that often compete with each other.
Bafel Talabani, the party’s leader, in an official statement on Monday labeled the alleged Turkish attack as part of a series of “conspiracies” aimed at jeopardizing Kurdistan’s security. He urged the federal government to “uphold its constitutional and national duties” in safeguarding Iraq’s territory and airspace, specifically in the Kurdish region.
In a statement shared on the social media platform X (previously referred to as Twitter), Alia Romanowski, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, expressed her condemnation of the airport assault.
She stated that we continue to support the importance of respecting Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as they are crucial for maintaining stability and security in the country.
On Monday, the Kurdistan National Congress, which is a collective body of Kurdish groups and parties, announced that one of its members was fatally injured within their office located in Erbil. However, no specific information was provided regarding the incident.
Turkey frequently carries out attacks on targets in Syria and Iraq that it suspects are linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist organization that has been engaged in an armed rebellion against Turkey since the 1980s.
Ankara considers the PKK and allied Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq as terrorist organizations.
In April, Turkey decided to prohibit flights to and from Sulaymaniyah International Airport due to concerns about potential risks to flight safety caused by reported Kurdish militant activity.
Days later, the Syrian Democratic Forces – Kurdish-led forces operating in northeast Syria that are allied with the United States but considered by Turkey to be an offshoot of the PKK – accused Turkey of launching a strike on the airport when SDF commander Mazloum Abdi was at the site. Abdi was unharmed.
On Tuesday, Iraqi authorities declared that they successfully implemented a deal to disarm Iranian Kurdish dissident groups situated in northern Iraq and to move their members away from their current positions close to the Iranian border. Iran has occasionally conducted airstrikes on the groups’ locations within Iraqi territory.
The bases, which were permanently evacuated, had their occupants transferred to a location distant from the border, according to a joint committee established by the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government.
