Turkey bombs Iraq refugee camp

Three civilians died on Saturday after a Turkish drone bombed a refugee camp in northern Iraq, that the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, recently threatened to “clean”.

Turkey accuses the Iraqi authorities of inaction and regularly bombs the north of the neighboring country to dislodge fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Turkish rebel group that Erdogan and his Western allies consider “terrorist”.

The attack took place a few hours after a PKK ambush that left five Peshmerga dead, the fighters of Iraqi Kurdistan, Ankara’s ally.

Rashad Galali, a Kurdish deputy from Makhmur, told the news agency AFP that the drone bombardment was targeting “A crèche near a school” in Makhmur camp, which houses Kurdish refugees from Turkey.

“Three civilians died and two were injured,” he said, adding that no child died.

Earlier this week, Erdogan had mentioned the Makhmur Campo, in Iraq but outside Kurdistan, 250 kilometers from the Turkish border, where the Ankara authorities often accuse the PKK of imposing the law.

He compared it to the Qandil Mountains, on the eastern border of Iraq, the most important base of the PKK, which since 1984 has been campaigning bloody guerrilla warfare on Turkish territory which has already killed more than 40,000.

An “incubator”

“For us, The theme of Makhmur is as important as Qandil. Because Makhmur is almost the incubator of Qandil. And if we don’t intervene, this incubator will continue to produce (terrorists)“said the Turkish president.

“The UN is not cleaning up this place, we will take care of it”, he threatened. Your country has been campaigning against the PKK in Iraq since April.

The use of drones is for experts a “revolution “military because they allow to locate, identify and eliminate targets in a few minutes.

Turkey prefers them for their efficiency and low cost to attack the enemy rather than going to very difficult areas on foot or in armor.

Iraq regularly denounces violations of its territory and sovereignty, but Turkey has de facto set up a dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan over the past 25 years.

Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador on several occasions but has never taken strong action against the country, which is one of its major trading partners.

The PKK, which refuses to recognize the Iraqi Kurdish government and campaigns for a unified Kurdistan straddling Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, is enemy of the Turkish authorities, but also those of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

On May 17, Erdogan announced that Senior Syrian Kurdish military official killed in Turkish intelligence operation in Iraq.

According to the president, the murdered Kurdish official, known by his nom de guerre, Sofi nurettin, was the military commander of the PKK in Syria.

“This terrorist, who has committed many bloody acts, is also responsible for numerous attacks against our military», Declared the Turkish president.

In February, Turkey accused the PKK of executing 13 of its nationalsMost of them, members of the security forces, whom he had held captive in northern Iraq for several years.

(With information from AFP)

KEEP READING: