ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A woman was killed and two others were wounded in what is believed to be a Turkish airstrike in a village near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Friday as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi security forces headed to the polls to cast their vote in the sixth parliamentary election since 2003. The strike, carried out by a drone according to Kurdish officials, was launched on Friday evening targeting a vehicle in the vicinity of the village of Saydan in Qarahanjir sub-district east of Kirkuk city. This was the second strike in a week in the same area. On October 4, another suspected strike wounded two people near the city of Chamchamal on the road between Kirkuk and Sulaimani. The person killed on Friday has not been identified yet. “The body is mangled and therefore we can’t determine the age of the deceased,” Sharif Rahim, spokesperson for Chamchamal’s health directorate, told Rudaw on Friday. “The wounded are between 25 and 35 years of age.” Ankara has not claimed responsibility but Twitter accounts close to the Turkish military have confirmed that Turkey carried out an airstrike near Kirkuk on Friday. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whose forces are responsible for security in the area where the strike was launched, condemned the attack and called on Turkey to immediately halt its operation. “This violation is a dangerous development that has occurred deep inside Kurdistan and Iraqi territory, thus we call for an immediate halt,” it said in a statement on Friday. “There is no excuse for violation of the border and inflicting suffering on innocent people.” The PUK called on the federal government in Baghdad “to bear its constitutional and patriotic responsibility in defending Iraqi land, including in Kurdistan, and use diplomatic channels to warn the Turkish government about this violation.” Turkey has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in recent years in the Kurdistan Region, claiming to target fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who have fought the Turkish state for over four decades. Dozens of PKK members have been killed in these strikes. Civilians also bear the brunt of these attacks as dozens have died or been wounded. Turkey has also carried out ground operations in Duhok and Erbil provinces, establishing outposts and deploying thousands of soldiers deep inside Iraqi territory. On Friday, security forces, displaced persons, and prisoners cast their ballots in special voting for Iraq’s next parliament. The general electorate votes on Sunday.
