SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Kurdistan Region’s counter-terrorism agency denied a report on Sunday that the Kurdish counter-terrorism forces were involved in the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last year.
Yahoo News reported on Saturday that the Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG) in northern Iraq had helped the United States in killing Soleimani, commander of Quds Force.
Soleimani alongside commander of the Popular Mobilization Units Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was killed in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
“As the plane taxied off the runway, one of the Kurdish operatives disguised as ground crew guided the aircraft to a halt on the tarmac,” the Yahoo News report said, referring to the plane which Soleimani boarded from Damascus to Baghdad.
“When the target stepped off the airplane, Kurdish CTG operators posing as baggage handlers were also present to positively identify him,” the report said, stating that the Kurdish operatives played a “key role” in the killing.
The Kurdish Counter-Terrorism Agency located in Sulaimani responded to the report in a statement on Sunday, rejecting involvement in the killing of Soleimani.
“Although we do not know which counter-terrorism forces the writers of the report meant, because unfortunately until now there are two forces of Peshmerga and Asayish [security], two intelligence agencies and two counter-terrorism units in the Kurdistan Region, we as the counter-terrorism forces reject any involvement in such act,” a spokesman for the counter-terrorism agency said.
“If the report is related to the other side [the counter-terrorism unit in Erbil], they should explain it themselves, especially as we are not aware of any of their activities and they are outside all institutions in the Kurdistan Region,” it added.
The counter-terrorism agency further said its units had fought terror alongside Soleimani on the same front.
“It is clear that by assassinating a leader at such level the Kurdistan Region has lost a historic friend and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has lost a friend of Mam Jalal,” it said, referring to PUK’s Secretary General Jalal Talabani, who died in October 2017.
“It is worth remembering that the Iranian government and the Iraqi government have formed a joint committee to investigate the case of targeting the top Iranian commander in Iraq, and they aren’t waiting on media reports to find the doers. We are also ready to answer any question,” it added.
“Despite that, we take the assumption that a local intelligence agency in the Kurdistan Region is involved in attempts to involve our agency, especially as we are aware that that intelligence agency has formed a special section to leak information to the regional and international media. They want at any cost to harm the reputation, security and tranquility of the Kurdistan Region and the Green Zone,” it continued, referring to areas in Sulaimani and Halabja provinces.
“The publication of this news report on the martyrdom of Haji Qasem Soleimani at this time and linking it to the PUK by the KDP media is to compensate the great damage on parties, politics and diplomats, caused by protecting party’s interests, opposing people and playing with the fate of the Kurdistan Region, more specifically after the scandal arrest and imprisonment of Kurdish young journalists on unsubstantial charges, which have left them with no trust from people and abroad.”
