“Iraqi air defense teams shot down a Turkish drone coming from the direction of Sulaimani,” Abdulsalam Ramadhan, deputy air defense commander for Kirkuk, told reporters at the site.
Several “loud explosions” were heard over one of central Kirkuk’s Turkmen-majority neighborhoods on Thursday morning, witnesses told Rudaw, as the drone was downed and crashed to the ground. Security forces and civil defense teams quickly arrived, extinguished the fire, and cordoned off the area as an investigation was launched.
No fatalities were reported but a worker was injured and taken to the hospital. The crash also damaged a house and several vehicles.
Hours later, Kirkuk police chief Fattah al-Khafaji said that a “large, unidentified drone entered Kirkuk airspace from the direction of the Chiman checkpoint,” confirming that it was shot down by the air defense.
Turkey maintains a large military presence on Iraqi territory, particularly in the northern mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region, under the pretext of fighting against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Ankara recently sent hundreds of troops into Duhok province, establishing checkpoints and launching strikes against alleged PKK positions in the mountains. A number of villages have been abandoned, as farmers have watched their livelihoods go up in flames sparked by the conflict.
The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state in the struggle for greater rights for decades and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara.
Baghdad earlier this year labeled the PKK as a “banned organization” and signed a security cooperation deal with Ankara against the Kurdish group.
