Family says three civilians killed in Friday drone strike

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A father and daughter were among three people killed on Friday when a drone hit their car on a road in southeastern Sulaimani province, according to a relative of one of the victims. 

Hasan Ahmad Kashmoola was travelling with his friend Ziyad Mustafa and Ziyad's daughter Rayan from their home in Duhok to the border with Iran when their car was hit by a drone strike, Hasan’s brother Nizar Ahmad Kashmoola told Rudaw. 

Rayan was a college student studying medicine. The three were going to the border to meet Hasan’s daughter who studies medicine in Tehran.

They were travelling in a Toyota Corolla car on the main road to the Bashmakh border crossing when they were killed. Hemin Ibrahim, mayor of the Nalparez subdistrict where the strike took place, told Rudaw on Friday that the “bodies were completely burnt.” 

Ibrahim said that when the drone hit the vehicle, there were other vehicles nearby but they were not impacted. The road is a busy one, commonly used by civilian vehicles. 

Initially, the Erbil-based Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD), which often reports Turkish attacks in the Kurdistan Region, said that a senior PKK official and several fighters were killed in the drone attack, while PKK-affiliated Rojnews reported that the vehicle was hit by a Turkish drone, but did not comment whether the casualties were members of the armed group. 

The PKK is an armed Kurdish group fighting for greater rights for Kurds in Turkey. Turkish forces frequently cross the border to pursue the group in the Kurdistan Region where the PKK has its headquarters. Civilians are often caught in the crossfire. 

Ankara has not commented on Friday’s strike.

Hasan Ahmad Kashmoola was originally from Mosul, but was living in Duhok, according to his brother. He worked for Kurdish telecommunication company Asiacell since 2021, Basam Sayid, director of the company’s Duhok office, confirmed to Rudaw.

Asiacell has confirmed that one of the victims, Hasan Ahmad Kashmoola, was an employee of the company and was driving the car when it was hit. 

All three victims were Arabs from Mosul who had fled to Duhok because of “the unrest in Mosul,” read the statement from Asiacell on Saturday.

Drone strikes in the past were mainly aimed at targets in unpopulated areas, but lately more strikes have hit crowded roads, causing alarm for the people who frequently travel them. 

On Wednesday, a suspected Turkish drone struck a car on Sulaimani province’s Dukan-Khalakan road, which lies on one of the main routes between Erbil and Sulaimani cities. Two people were wounded and one of them, a newly-engaged man, later succumbed to his injuries. 

CTD said on Wednesday that a PKK intelligence officer was killed in a Turkish drone attack in Sulaimani province’s Mawat district earlier in the day, north of Sulaimani city near the border with Iran. CTD is unofficially linked to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has had rocky relations with the PKK for decades.

A similar drone attack against a vehicle in Sulaimani province's Aghjalar subdistrict on Sunday was blamed on Turkey. 

The Kurdistan Regional Government, the Iraqi government, and the international community have been silent about the recent aerial strikes in Sulaimani province.

 

Updated at 8:16 pm with the Asiacell statement