SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Peshmerga ministry said on Saturday its military engineering team had defused a bomb in Zini Warte, northeast of Erbil.
The ministry of Peshmerga said in a statement that the Kurdish forces found a 25-liter container filled with explosives in Zini Warte area, west of Mount Qandil.
A unit from the department of military engineering defused the explosives prepared for being “blown up”, it added.
“According to initial investigation, all assumptions are that the PKK forces had planted the bomb,” the ministry said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
It was the second time that the Peshmerga’s bomb disposal teams defuse bombs in areas in Erbil and Duhok provinces.
On August 5, the Peshmerga removed nearly 60 kilograms of improvised explosives in a tunnel in Amedi district, northeast of Duhok.
Peshmerga officials accuse the PKK of planting bombs in areas where clashes erupt between the Turkish military and the PKK fighters.
A member of the Peshmerga forces was slightly injured in a mine attack in Amedi on Wednesday. Deputy Minister Sarbast Lazgin accused the PKK of planting the mine.
Spokesman of the People’s Defense Forces (HPG) Zagros Hiwa denied the allegation, saying “guerrillas will never plant mines against the Peshmerga”.
“Publishing and planting those mines are to cause turmoil. The KDP has itself planted them so as to accuse the PKK,” Hiwa said, referring to the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
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.
