Kurdish security council blames PKK for general’s death

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) on Friday blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the killing of a retired brigadier-general last week. 

“Following investigations, we have sufficient evidence regarding the individual and the terrorist group who committed this terrorist act. They were sent by the PKK,” read the statement from the KRSC. 

Retired Brigadier-General Mohammed Mirza was killed when his car exploded on Sunday evening in the town of Zakho in the Kurdistan Region’s northern province of Duhok. 

According to the KRSC statement, the suspects were watching Mirza’s house early Sunday morning and attached to his car the bomb that was detonated later that evening.

The PKK is yet to comment on the accusation.

The day after Mirza’s death, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani ordered an investigation. “I have instructed the relevant institutions to conduct a thorough investigation of this incident and to reveal the perpetrators behind this crime,” Barzani said. 

The PKK is an armed group fighting for greater rights for Kurds in Turkey. The party’s headquarters are in the mountains of the Kurdistan Region. It has a tense relationship with the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Duhok province. The KDP-led Kurdistan Regional Government blames the PKK for drawing Turkey’s fire and troops across the border.

In 2021, following a PKK-blamed attack on Peshmerga forces in Amedi in which three were killed and seven injured, the Iraqi Presidency said the PKK’s presence in the country was “unlawful.” The PKK claimed the Peshmerga were killed by an exploding landmine and said they do not want to start a civil war between Kurds.