(Baghdad) The presidency in Baghdad condemned on Tuesday “repeated aggressions by Turkey” in Iraqi territory the day after the death of three members of the Kurdish anti-terrorist services in a drone strike attributed to Ankara.
A neighboring country of Iraq, Turkey rarely comments on its military operations in northern Iraq, where it mainly targets Turkish Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
But the drone strike that hit Arbat airfield in Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday represents a rare attack against the security forces of this autonomous region in the north of the country.
“The Turkish ambassador will be summoned to Baghdad to give him a letter of protest addressed to the Turkish presidency,” the services of Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rachid said in a statement on Tuesday.
Turkey has not officially commented on Monday’s strike.
This targeted the Arbat airfield, near Suleimaniyah, where forces from the Kurdistan anti-terrorist services are stationed. The bombing left three dead and three injured among their troops.
” Good neighborhood ”
The drone entered “Iraqi airspace via the border with Turkey,” General Yehya Rassoul, spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces in Baghdad, assured earlier Tuesday.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
“These repeated attacks are incompatible with the principle of good neighborliness between States,” he criticized in a press release.
In Sulaymaniyah, hundreds of people gathered on Tuesday in a mosque in this second city of Kurdistan for the funeral of one of the victims.
Members of the security forces, his family and residents took part in the funeral procession which went to the cemetery, according to an AFP correspondent on site.
The Prime Minister of the autonomous region, Masrour Barzani condemned “a violation of sovereignty”, refusing “all illegal actions which threaten the security of Kurdistan”.
In the summer of 2022, artillery strikes blamed on Ankara against a recreation area killed nine people, mainly vacationers from southern Iraq. Turkey denied any responsibility and blamed the PKK.
Turkey and Iran are often singled out for drone strikes targeting their respective opposition groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, which have been established in this sector for decades.
For 25 years, Ankara has installed several dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight against the PKK, classified as a “terrorist” group by Ankara and several Western countries.
“Far from the border”
On Sunday, at least four PKK members were killed by a drone strike carried out by the Turkish army, according to authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In April, Iraq accused Turkey of having carried out a “bombing” near Sulaymaniyah airport.
In recent days, Baghdad has been in discussions with Tehran regarding the presence in Iraqi Kurdistan of armed groups of the Iranian Kurdish opposition.
A year ago, Tehran repeatedly bombed the positions of these groups. They were accused of infiltrating Iran to carry out attacks against Iranian forces. And to be involved in the protest movement triggered in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd arrested by the moral police in September 2022.
Tehran had set September 19 as a deadline and threatened reprisals if Baghdad did not implement a “security agreement” providing for the disarmament of these groups and their removal from the border.
In a statement on Tuesday, Baghdad assured that it had “respected its commitments” and had transferred these groups “to a sector far from the border”.
“These groups were disarmed with a view to granting them the status of refugees,” adds the statement published by a high committee responsible for implementing the agreement, specifying that the border guards of the federal Iraqi army were deployed in these border areas.
“Significant progress has been made,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, UN special representative in Iraq, confirmed to AFP when asked about the application of the agreement. “All parties are sincerely committed to the agreement. Long-term security is essential for everyone.”