Kurdistan Region arrests man suspected of killing Turkish diplomat in Erbil
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced the arrest of Mazlum Dag on Saturday, three days after he was suspected of killing a Turkish diplomat at a restaurant in Erbil, the capital city of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
"The main perpetrator responsible for the Erbil restaurant shooting on July 17 has now been arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Unit of Kurdistan Region, following a large-scale search operation. He has been named as Mazlum Dag," read a statement from the office of the spokesperson of the KRG on Saturday.
Authorities from the Kurdistan Region and Turkey have repeatedly said they will work together on the investigation.
"We commend the security forces, counter-terrorism unit, and people of Kurdistan, and ensure that operations will continue until all individuals involved in the shooting are arrested and brought to justice," the KRG statement added.
Kurdistan Region security forces provided further details on the arrest.
"We want to inform the public that the criminal Mazlum Dag, whose photo was published two days ago as wanted by the Kurdistan Counter Terrorism Facebook page was detained by the Erbil Asayesh (Security) Directorate and Kurdistan Counterterrorism Unit (Kurdistan CT), is in custody now," read a statement released on Saturday.
Kurdistan CT is a division of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC), overseeing the intelligence and security community.
The security officials also posted a photo of the suspect who appears to have his wrists handcuffed behind his back.
Security officials from the Kurdistan Region later announced that another suspect who is believed to have assisted in the incident is in custody on Saturday.
"One of the Mazlum Dag's accomplices in the terrorist shooting attack in one of the restaurants in Erbil — named Muhammed Biskiz also known as (Dizhwar, Mamand, Yousif) — was detained by Erbil's Asayesh (Security) Directorate and the Kurdistan Counterterrorism Unit (Kurdistan CT)," a statement from the Kurdistan CT said.
Muhammed Biskiz in custody of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) on July 20, 2019. Photo: Kurdistan CT
No other identifying details about Yousif were immediately available. He also posed in a photo posted by the Kurdistan Region’s authorities.
The arrest follows the killing of an employee of the Turkish Consulate General at a restaurant in a western neighborhood on Wednesday. The KRSC identified Dag as a possible suspect on Thursday.
According to a previous statement by Kurdish counter-terrorism authorities, Mazlum Dag was born in 1992 in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey.
"We want to thank the people of the Kurdistan Region for their support and help, more details to be announced soon," the brief statement posted on Facebook concluded.
Dag is the brother of Dersim Dag, a pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy for Diyarbakir and the youngest MP in the history of the Turkish parliament.
The president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Masoud Barzani, thanked security forces and the people of the Kurdistan Region in light of response to the killing of the Turkish diplomat in Erbil.
"I want to thank the Kurdistan security forces and Kurdistan counterterrorism forces for the speedy detention of the attackers of the terrorist attack..." a statement from Barzani's office read.
The KDP is the largest party in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Its powerbase is Erbil, which takes pride in being a safe locale particularly for foreigners in the Middle East.
"I want to thank the people of Kurdistan for their supportive stance. Once again the people of Kurdistan and security forces proved that Kurdistan will never be an area for terrorists, and there won’t be any criminals who can hide from the eyes of the people of the Kurdistan Region and security forces," Barzani added.
The former president of the Kurdistan Region reiterated that people should not bring their quarrels to the Kurdistan Region.
"I want to inform everybody to keep their problems away from Kurdistan Region and not to harm the people of Kurdistan," he said.
Rudaw reporter Sangar Abdulrahman was shown security camera footage from the scene of Wednesday’s attack, which provided a rough timeline of events.
At around 11:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, three individuals pulled up in a Toyota Yaris outside the HuQQabaz restaurant in Erbil’s upmarket Empire World complex, where the Turkish diplomat was dining.
After briefly walking around the area they returned to the vehicle and drove away, before returning half an hour later.
Upon their return, the three individuals entered the restaurant. One took a seat next to the Turkish diplomat’s table while the other two sat at a distance, ordering water, tea, and coffee.
When the Turkish diplomat stood up to pay his check, one of the assailants drew a suppressed pistol and shot him in the head. The diplomat died at the scene.
Two Kurdish civilians, Nariman Othman Ali and Bashdar Ramadhan, were shot by a second gunman, also carrying a suppressed pistol. It is not clear whether they were trying to intervene or escape.
Companions of the Turkish diplomat also drew weapons and began shooting. One of the assailants was injured and limped out of the restaurant. The three individuals returned to their vehicle and fled the scene.
The identity of Dag’s two accomplices and the trio’s current whereabouts remained unknown as of Friday.
Translation by Lawk Ghafuri
Update: 11:23 p.m.