According to Agence France-Presse, citing local sources, at least 5 civilians were killed and 20 others were injured in the bombing of a tourist accommodation in Zakho in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq on Wednesday.
Moshir Bashir, mayor of Zakho district, said: Five people, including Iraqi tourists from outside the region, were killed in the bombing of a resort near Barkh Zakho village on the border with Turkey.
Stating that there is a child and a woman among the dead, he noted: Turkey bombed Barakhi village twice today.
An official in the Kurdistan Regional Government also announced that “at least five people were killed” and a number of others were wounded.
And user accounts on social networks in Iraq published pictures of the first moments of the bombing and first aid to the wounded.
The Turkish military constantly conducts cross-border operations and airstrikes in northern Iraq, which it says are PKK positions.
Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and other countries for decades, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been using Iraq’s northern mountains as a springboard for its operations in a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish government and its military.
And last April, Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish militias in the Matina region of northern Iraq, involving about 5,000 troops, supported by helicopters, drones and special forces that carried out the landings.
Iraq has previously asked Turkey to end its military activities on its soil, but Ankara accuses Baghdad of tolerating the presence of the PKK and refusing to end its cross-border attacks.
Source: Lebanon Debate
