Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
At least five people, including a woman, have been killed in a Turkish drone strike in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, as Ankara ramps up its cross-border offensives in the Arab country.
According to Press TV, Iraqi security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the victims lost their lives after a drone bombarded their vehicle in the Tigris region, west of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, on Sunday.
The sources said that two people were also injured in the attack, which occurred approximately 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.
Ambulances were dispatched to the scene of the incident and took the dead bodies to the forensics, they added.
Najm al-Jubouri, the Governor of Nineveh Province, in a separate statement said the attack took place at around 02:20 pm local time when a Turkish drone targeted a civilian vehicle in the west of Mosul.
Al-Jubouri strongly condemned the drone strike, saying such attacks would destabilize the security situation in the Iraqi province and called for a protest by the Iraqi government, Xinhua news agency reported.
Turkey launched a new cross-border incursion into Iraq, dubbed Operation Claw-Lock, in April. The air-and-ground military attacks target suspected strongholds of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the Zab, Basiyan, Avasheen, and Korajiwar districts in the Kurdistan region.
The Iraqi government summoned the Turkish ambassador, Ali Riza Guney, shortly afterward and handed him a “strongly worded” protest note over the offensive, calling it a blatant violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty.
For its part, Ankara also summoned the Iraqi charge d’affaires and warned him that the military operations will continue if Baghdad doesn’t take action against PKK members.
