Child killed in Iraq strike blamed on Turkey
A child was killed on Wednesday in an air strike on Iraq’s northern region of Sinjar, security sources said, blaming the Turkish air force.
The heartland of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, Sinjar is frequently targeted by Turkish air strikes against bases of Turkey’s separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The strike hit a “municipal council building in Snuny”, a village near the border with Syria, said a security official in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan.
“A 12-year-old child was killed and six other people were wounded,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Another security source said two civilians were killed in the strike on the base of Ezidikhan, a Yazidi protection force close to the PKK.
Both sources alleged the attack had been carried out by the Turkish air force.
Turkey launched a new offensive in northern Iraq in April dubbed “Operation Claw-Lock”, which it said targets PKK bases and training camps.
Designated as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, the PKK has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The Yazidis are a non-Arab, Kurdish-speaking minority who have been persecuted for centuries, most recently by jihadists of the Islamic State group.
