ANKARA, July 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Turkey on Thursday launched an air attack
on Iraqi Kurdistan in response to the killing of a Turkish diplomat in the
region, the country’s defence minister said.
The Turkish vice consul to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region was shot dead
Wednesday in the local capital Arbil. Police sources said two other people
were also killed.
There was no claim of responsibility for the shooting, but many Iraqi
experts have pointed to the probability that the Turkish separatist Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist group, was behind
the attack.
“Following the evil attack in Arbil, we have launched the most
comprehensive air operation on Qandil and dealt a heavy blow to the (PKK)
terror organisation,” defence minister Hulusi Akar said in a statement.
Targets such as “armaments positions, lodgings, shelters and caves
belonging to terrorists” were destroyed.
“Our fight against terror will continue with increasing determination until
the last terrorist is neutralised and the blood of our martyrs will be
avenged,” he added.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which now leads the regional
government, enjoys good political and trade relations with Turkey.
But Turkey has been conducting a ground offensive and bombing campaign
since May in the mountainous northern region to root out the PKK which has
waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
Earlier this month, the PKK announced that one of those raids killed senior
PKK leader Diyar Gharib Mohammed along with two other fighters.
A spokesman for the PKK’s armed branch denied the group was involved in
Wednesday’s shooting.