KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region—Iraqi fighter jets bombed the center of Tuz Khurmatu, south of Kirkuk Sunday afternoon, killing a 12-year-old girl and wounding at least eight others, local officials said.
“At 5:50 pm (local time) the Iraqi warplanes struck Tuz Khurmatu, killing one 12 year-year-old girl and wounding either others," said Sardar Ahmed Fatih, a member of Tuz Khurmatu town council.
Officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) suspect that the jets had targeted their local office in the ethnically mixed town.
“The fighter jets came and flew over the town for a while and then they dropped a bomb towards the PUK headquarter and then they fired another rocket at the headquarter,” said Karim Shikur, a PUK official in Tuz Khurmatu, as quoted by the PUK media.
“The airstrike was directed at our office,” Shikur added.
Two houses close to the PUK office were reported destroyed in the attack.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces strengthened their positions in Tuz Khurtamu, 85 KM south of Kirkuk after the withdrawal of Iraq’s armed forces from the region last month.
The Peshmerga lines are within range of both the Iraqi army and the Islamic State (IS). But the Kurds are in defensive positions to hold back any advance of the Iraqis or Islamic militants.
In a similar incident last month Iraqi helicopters attacked Kurdish forces near Saadiya in northern Diyala province, killing seven Peshmerga fighters and wounding 27 others.
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