Kurdistan CT claims Duhok helicopter crash casualties were PKK fighters

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Erbil-based Kurdistan CT claimed early Thursday that the casualties of a helicopter crash in Duhok province the previous night were fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

An unidentified helicopter crashed in Duhok’s Chamanke subdistrict on Wednesday night, killing all seven people onboard. The vicinity of the area where the copter fell is known for frequent clashes between Turkey and the PKK.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that the helicopter was of type Eurocopter AS350 and that several of the passengers that were killed were PKK fighters,” the counterterrorism force stated. 

The PKK, however, has yet to comment on the incident, while Turkey’s defense ministry was quick to deny reports that the fallen helicopter belonged to the Turkish armed forces. 

Further investigations into the incident are ongoing, according to the counterterrorism force. 

The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey for decades and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, who has launched successive operations both in the Kurdistan Region and Syria to target the group and other forces Turkey claims to be its offshoots. 

Chamanke in Duhok province is located 15 kilometers from Mount Gara, a region where Ankara in Februrary 2021 launched an operation dubbed Claw-Eagle-2 targeting the PKK.

More than 500 villages have been emptied in the Kurdistan Region over three decades of the Turkey-PKK conflict.