Iraq News Now

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Two days after a Turkish airstrike killed four people in the villages of Deraluk town of Amedi district, Turkish airstrikes killed two more people in the area on Friday who were said to be searching for two of their kin’s dead bodies.

Sardar Hetuti, a relative of one of the killed, told Rudaw that his relative alongside another man from their village went looking for two missing men named Baxityar Hassan and Ziyad Haji Hetuti who were killed during Turkish airstrikes on Wednesday. 

“Today, relatives of the two missing men went look for them, but the Turkish jets bombarded the area, and thus they lost their lives,” Hetuti said.

Both men who died on Friday are locals and have wives. The area is northwest of Erbil near the border with Turkey.

The mayor of Deraluk, Sami Ushana, confirmed the news to Rudaw, adding that their corpses were being transported and will be buried Friday at the Hitut compound.

Turkey uses the pretext of the presence of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the area to bombard them. However, rarely ever a PKK guerrilla is killed. Often non-PKK members are the victims of the Turkish airstrikes. 

"As you know, like every time Turkey's jets bombard our areas under the pretext of bombing and destroying PKK, innocent civilians get killed," Mohammed Saleem, a local official at Deraluk, told Rudaw.

He noted the number of the killed due to airstrikes has risen to six. The search is still ongoing for the two missing.

He called on the Iraqi government and MPs from the Kurdistan Region in the Iraqi parliament and the Iraqi president to take a stance and prevent the violation of Iraqi sovereignty so that locals are no longer killed. 

If no stance is taken, he added they will start protests in the area to demand a stance.
The largest party in the Kurdistan Region, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) issued a short statement, asking for civilians not to be targeted due to fighting between Turkey and the PKK.

The KRG has urged Baghdad to play a larger role in maintaining the territorial sovereignty of the country and the protection of its airspace. 

For the third consecutive day, the Turkish military continued strike position of the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) in Tel Rifaat, Aleppo province, Syria. Turkey's state run Anadolu Agency reported Howitzers were deployed and fired 20 rounds at "YPG/PKK posts in several villages."

Many of the 300,000 people displaced from Afrin are living in the area. Turkey considers the YPG to be the Syrian extension of the PKK. The YPG denies any organizational links. 

Reporting by Nasr Ali