PJAK says one fighter killed in Kuna Masi airstrike

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), an armed Iranian Kurdish opposition group, announced Friday in a statement that one of their fighters was killed and three were wounded in an airstrike Thursday.

“A group of our comrades, while returning from duty, were targeted by Turkish fascist’s war drones in Kuna Masi resort … at 5 pm on June 25,” read the statement, published by Roj News,  an outlet close to PJAK.

An airstrike on mid-day Thursday targeted a shop in a village resort in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province, close to the Iranian border. Shaho Osman, mayor of the town of Sharbazhir, told Rudaw that the strike targeted a pickup truck, injuring six civilians and killing one fighter, whom he did not identify.  

Turkey launched air campaign Operation Claw-Eagle on June 15, with the stated aim of targeting suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region and in the disputed territories of northern Iraq. It launched ground campaign Operation Claw-Tiger on June 17, deploying commando forces to the Haftanin area of Duhok province.

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.

Kurdish militant groups and Turkish forces have had military bases along the Turkey-Iraq border decades. The rough, mountainous region is used by an untold number of guerrillas of the PKK and PJAK as a base of operations. But with their presence comes the threat of attacks by Turkish forces, which have frightened and sometimes threatened local villagers.

PJAK’s statement attributed Thursday’s strike to Turkey, which has not confirmed involvement in the attack.

Turkey’s defense ministry said in a statement on Friday that it only targets “terrorists,” in reference to the PKK. “As it has been the case before, no civilian has been harmed or will be harmed in this operation,” the defense ministry stated.