SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) military wing denied on Thursday it had planted mines on roads against the Peshmerga forces, accusing the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of doing so.
A member of the Kurdish forces was slightly wounded after a Peshmerga vehicle hit a mine in Amedi district on Wednesday.
Deputy Minister of Peshmerga Sarbast Lazgin, who is a KDP member, accused the PKK of planting the mine on a road which he said used by civilians and the Kurdish forces in Amedi.
“Some KDP officials and media of the party had said the PKK was planting mines on the roads against the Peshmerga forces. Those are far from truth, and guerrillas will never plant mines against the Peshmerga,” spokesman of the People’s Defense Forces (HPG) Zagros Hiwa told Esta Media Network.
“Publishing and planting those mines are to cause turmoil. The KDP has itself planted them so as to accuse the PKK,” Hiwa said.
He stressed that the PKK would only plant mines against Turkey and those occupy Kurdistan land, not the Peshmerga.
The PKK which has bases in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains is an armed group fighting for rights of Kurds in Turkey. It has been fighting the Turkish military in southeast of Turkey and the Kurdistan Region’s border areas.
KDP officials have accused the PKK of attacks carried out against the Peshmerga forces in Duhok province in the past months.
In June, five members of the Peshmerga forces were killed and seven others were injured after their convoy was attacked on Mount Matin, northeast of Duhok..
The convoy was hit either by a rocket or an improvised explosive device (IED) as it was heading toward a point on the mountain.
The ministry of Peshmerga said the PKK fighters “ambushed” a unit of the Peshmerga forces on Mount Matin in Amedi district, northeast of Duhok.
The PKK denied the allegations and called for investigations into the attack.
