SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) President Bafel Talabani and Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq leader Qais Khazali met on Thursday in Baghdad.
In the meeting, the Arbat “terrorist attack” was condemned, a statement released by Talabani’s press office read, adding that the two have also stressed unifying the national efforts for the sake of the country’s stability.
It further added that Talabani has called on all Iraqi parties to be united against the aggression on Iraq’s sovereignty. Meanwhile, both sides reiterated their commitments to the deals between Erbil and Baghdad, as well as constitutional resolution of the issues.
Three members of the Sulaimani-based counter-terrorism unit, known as (CTG) were killed and three others wounded on Monday in a drone strike on the small military airport of Arbat in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, south Sulaimani City.
The drone entered Iraqi airspace through Turkey’s border, Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rasool said in a statement early on Tuesday.
Turkey on Tuesday also claimed that the Syrian-based Kurdish group fighters, the People Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara sees as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were presented at the airport.
Ankara further claimed that the CTG was in the midst of training the YPG/PKK fighters during the attack, without saying whether it was behind the attack or not.
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.
