SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iaqi President Latif Rashid will summon Turkey’s ambassador to Iraq to protest a drone strike on a small airport in the Kurdistan region on Monday that left several members of the Kurdish Counter-Terrorisn Unit (CTG), a presidency statement said.
Three members of the Sulaimani-Based Counter-Terrirusm Unit (CTG) were killed and three others wounded on Monday in a drone strike on the small military airport of Arbat in the Kurdistan Region.
The drone entered Iraqi airspace through Turkey’s border, Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rasool said in a statement early on Tuesday, adding: “Iraq reserves the right to put an end to these violations.”
Turkey regularly carries out air strikes that it says target Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq, and has dozens of outposts in Iraqi territory.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.
A Turkish foreign ministry statement, while not outright claiming the strike, said “the latest incident has once again confirmed the accuracy of Turkey’s measures.”
It said that “at the time of the explosion,” counterterrorism forces affiliated with the Iraqi Kurdish PUK party were training together with PKK “terrorists.”
The statement reiterated Turkey’s call for Iraq to designate the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
