SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The People’s Defense Units (HPG) on Thursday denied Ankar’s accusations over its involvement in Zakho’s shelling.
On Wednesday, around 4:00 p.m. local time the Turkish artilleries opened a traumatic shelling, targeting a tourist site in a resort located in Parkhe village in Zakho district of Duhok province, despite the presence of hundreds of Arab tourists who came from southern provinces of the country. Killing Nine including a one-year-old baby and wounding 25.
Following the attacks Turkey has been hit with waves of widespread reactions around the world, forcing the country’s ministry of foreign affairs to publish a clarification saying, it did not involve in the attack and accused the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) fighters.
However, a military wing of the PKK denied the accusation, in a statement, The People’s Defense Units (HPG) said, “We do not have any forces in the area where the massacre was carried out”.
“In these areas around the shelled region, Turkey has the upper hand and occupied”, also “there is the presence of the Iraqi border guards units as well as forces belonging to the Kurdistan Region, therefore we do not have any connection with this incident,” it said.
“The state of Turkey aims to end people’s lives and drive out the people in the region” it added.
In the meantime, Iraq’s Prime Minister has sent a high-security delegation led by foreign minister Fuad Hussain to investigate the incident. Later, the Iraqi foreign minister in a press conference explicitly blamed Turkey for the attack.
He also added that “We have military expertise who came along with us to the incident site, we concluded that the shelling was carried out by Turkey”.
The Turkish government keeps saying “we defend ourselves”, but shelling a village and killing civilians are not actions of self-defense, Hussain said.
Hussain further demanded Turkey halt its operations inside Iraq’s territory and apologize to the Iraqi nation, paying compensation to victims’ families.
