ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Turkish drone strike on a village in northern Sulaimani province near the Kurdistan Region’s border with Iran on Tuesday night allegedly killed five members of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) – not members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as earlier claimed.
PJAK, an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group, issued a statement on Friday claiming an airstrike hit one of its vehicles carrying two fighters and three supporters.
“At 11:45 pm on May 26, two of our fighters were inside a vehicle alongside three of our supporters who were driving in the Assos area of Sifra village,” PJAK said in its statement, published by Sterk TV – a media outlet affiliated with the group.
“A Turkish drone targeted the vehicle carrying our fighters and supporters and killed all of them inside the vehicle,” the statement said.
PJAK named the two fighters as Zinar Brusik and Rebaz Sina, but did not provide names for the three supporters killed in the strike.
The group accused traitors and collaborators of giving up the vehicle’s location to the Turkish military. “Such an attack proves that without the hands of the traitors, the enemies will never be able to reach such areas,” the statement added.
Initial reports on Tuesday indicated the occupants of the vehicle were members of the PKK, another armed opposition group which has fought a decades-long struggle against the Turkish state for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey.
A statement from Turkey’s Defense Ministry published on Twitter claimed responsibility for the strike, and confirmed the killing of five PKK fighters, as part of reconnaissance and surveillance operations over northern Iraq.
Both the PKK and PJAK use the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as a safe haven from which to launch attacks on Turkish and Iranian security forces. PJAK is considered the Iranian wing of the PKK, but PJAK claims it is merely linked by shared ideology.
The Turkish military launches regular raids against the PKK in the Qandil Mountains, which straddle Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. Guerrilla groups have long operated bases on the rugged terrain.
Its decades-long war with the Turkish state has resulted in more than 40,000 deaths on both sides. The PKK is regarded as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies.
A ceasefire came into effect in 2013 during the short-lived peace process, which lasted until July 2015 when the talks collapsed.
Since then, 4,825 people have been killed, including 2,859 PKK fighters, 1,229 Turkish soldiers, 489 civilians, and 226 people of unknown affiliation, according to ICG figures, last updated March 5.
Villagers in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq are frequently caught in the crossfire, leading to calls from Erbil and Baghdad for Turkey to cease its raids and for the guerrillas to leave their territory.
Iran has also targeted groups in the Kurdistan Region. On September 8, 2018, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched seven ballistic missiles at the headquarters of two Kurdish opposition groups in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Koya, killing 18 people.
Turkey and Iran have previously held talks about shared border security and cooperation against smugglers and armed factions.
