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SIDAKAN, Kurdistan Region — Border force officials have spoken to Rudaw of the Turkish airstrike which killed two brigadiers in Erbil province on Tuesday.
An unmanned drone targeted a meeting between Iraqi border officials and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters and a military vehicle in Bradost on Tuesday afternoon, officials confirmed.
The meeting, held in Bradost’s Bermi Dindaran area, near the town of Sidakan, came after PKK fighters fired on Iraqi border guards Monday night as the latter advanced further into the mountainous region.
“We have two martyrs, Brigadier. Mohammed Rashid and Brigadier. Zubair Hali. They were hit by an airstrike in Bermi Dindaran area [in Bradost],” said Lieutenant Colonel Muhsin Aziz of the Iraqi border forces.
“One [PKK] fighter was martyred – his name was Ageed and was high-ranking… he was with Brigadier Zubair and the other brigadier,” said witness Attam Bas.
All of those killed and injured are Kurdish.
The majority of Iraq’s border forces stationed in the Kurdistan Region are Kurdish, with some Arab and Turkmen members. The forces have been stationed in the province since 2003.
Iraq has responded strongly to the airstrikes, summoning the Turkish ambassador and cancelling the Turkish defense minister’s visit to Baghdad, scheduled for Thursday.
The airstrikes follow renewed Turkish offensives in the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey launched new operations in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories in mid-June. Air offensive Operation Claw-Eagle began on June 15, with a ground offensive, dubbed Operation Claw-Tiger, launched on June 17.
Seven civilians have been killed in Turkish airstrikes since mid-June. Ankara’s stated aim was to remove suspected PKK targets from the area. The PKK is a Kurdish group fighting for increased rights for the Kurdish minority in Turkey, and is designated a terrorist group by Ankara and its allies.
Thousands of people have been displaced across border areas in the Kurdistan Region as a result of Ankara’s offensives.
Translation by Sarkawt Mohammed
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