ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A suspected Turkish drone strike on Friday targeted a vehicle in Sulaimani’s Said Sadiq district, reportedly leaving several casualties.
According to eyewitnesses, a vehicle was hit by a drone strike in Said Sadiq. Videos submitted to Rudaw show smoke bellowing from the vehicle.
A security source told Rudaw that the strike occurred near the Tapa Rash village in the Said Sadiq area, and security teams were dispatched to investigate.
Two people were killed in the strike, and another was severely injured, according to Rudaw’s reporter on the ground.
Rudaw has learned that several journalists from Sterk TV, a media outlet close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were in the vehicle.
Rojnews, another media outlet affiliated with the PKK, reported that Turkish drones targeted the vehicle and “killed two journalists and injured six others.”
The Erbil-based Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD), also known as Kurdistan CT, said on Friday that a Turkish drone struck a vehicle belonging to PKK fighters, killing a group official and two others.
The Turkish defense ministry has yet to comment on the strike.
The incident took place hours after Turkish warplanes targeted the Chwarta district in the Sharbazher area of Sulaimani province according to the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a human rights organization and conflict monitor tracking Turkish operations in the Kurdistan Region.
“The bombardment was [conducted] by and did not leave casualties,” Kamaran Osman, a member of the CPT told Rudaw referring to the earlier attack.
Turkey began intensifying its decades-long war against the PKK in mid-June and has deployed hundreds of troops in the Kurdistan Region for cross-border operations.
According to CPT, Turkish warplanes targeted PKK positions on Tuesday in the Choman and Mawat districts, located in Erbil and Sulaimani provinces, respectively.
Turkish forces have killed at least 344 civilians since the 1990s, the CPT said in a damning report on August 14.
Updated at 1:13 pm with the statement from Kurdistan CT.
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