Iraq
Scenes from the YBS headquarters drone attack in Shingal, Iraq on June 15, 2022. Photo: screenshot/Firat News Agency
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A suspected Turkish drone on Wednesday targeted the headquarters of a militia group affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Shingal, causing injuries and civilian casualties, local sources confirmed to Rudaw.
The drone targeted the headquarters of Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) in Snune sub-district at least twice, according to Rudaw’s ground reporter Yousif Rabih and media outlets affiliated with the PKK.
A health official from Snune’s hospital told Rabih that the attack killed at least one person and injured 10 others, mostly civilians.
However, Firat News Agency (ANF) affiliated with the PKK raised the toll of deaths to two, noting that there are no official numbers of those injured.
There have been no comments from neither Turkey nor Shingal’s autonomous administration regarding the incident as of yet.
A child, Salah Nasir, was killed in the attack, his father said in a Facebook post. Iraqi political parties and Yazidi rights activists condemned the child's death.
The YBS controlled parts of Shingal months after it was invaded by the Islamic State (ISIS) militants in summer 2014
Ankara occasionally carries out such attacks against the YBS in Shingal where several armed forces affiliated with the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the PKK, and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) are present.
A military official of the YBS was killed in an airstrike by the Turkish army in the town in December.
Turkey considers the YBS to be an offshoot of the PKK, an armed group fighting for the enhanced rights of Kurds in Turkey. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, which carries out regular military campaigns against the group at home and in northern Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region.
Updated at 7:15pm
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