Car bomb kills former PUK counter-terrorism official in Erbil

07-10-2022

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A car exploded in the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil on Friday afternoon, killing the driver and injuring several others. The Region’s counter-terrorism directorate (CTD) said the explosion was due to a “sticky bomb” attached to the vehicle.

The explosion occurred in Erbil city’s 32 Park neighborhood and targeted the car of a former Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) counter-terrorism official named Hawkar Abdullah, Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw told Rudaw.

Khoshnaw confirmed that the explosion was a bomb that was installed to the bottom of the vehicle and said that investigations into the incident are ongoing.

Kurdistan CTD said the explosion was caused by a “sticky bomb” that killed the driver of the vehicle and wounded four passengers – two women and two children.

Rudaw understands that Abdullah was the head of the PUK's intelligence and counter-terrorism directorate in Nineveh, but ceased assuming the position after the internal issues inside the PUK began last year.

The PUK was rocked by a power struggle in July 2021 as Bafel Talabani ousted his co-president and cousin Lahur Talabany. Bafel Talabani said the shakeup was to end abuse of party positions such as smuggling and extortion.

The cousins’ internal issues eascalated when Bafel Talabani decided to change the heads of the PUK’s intelligence agency and counter-terrosim units, who were affiliated to Lahur Talabany, replacing them with people loyal to himself.

Lahur Talabany later in the day extended his condolences to Abdullah’s family, calling on the relevant authorities to swiftly arrest the perpetrators of the attack.

“The incident has saddened me to the core… I have contacted the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region [Masrour Barzani] and requested him to reveal the perpetrators of this terrorist act to the public opinion as soon as possible,” read a statement from Lahur Talabany.

Reporters and media teams on the scene of the incident were met with battery and violence from the security forces, including Rudaw’s cameraman Ahmad Younis who was violently attacked.

Metro Center for Journalists Right and Advocacy condemned the attack on Younis and other instances of brutality by security actors against media personnel, saying “depriving journalists of information during emergencies is depriving people of the right to know and understand the events and make decisions about them.”

Kurdistan Journalists’ Syndicate (KJS) on Thursday said the Region in 2021 reported 79 cases of violations, including insults, attacks and beating, committed against 187 journalists and media outlets.

Car bombs in the Kurdistan Region’s cities are a rare occurrence.

In June, a member of an Iranian-Kurdish opposition organization was injured in a car bomb in Erbil's Setaqan neighborhood.

Additional reporting by Chenar Chalak

Updated at 7:43PM with Lahur Talabany's statement