ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Thursday condemned a deadly shooting that killed a Turkish consular official and two others a day earlier in the regional capital of Erbil as a “premeditated terrorist attack.”
“We are now treating the shooting incident in Erbil on Wednesday 17 July 2019, which killed three people, as a premeditated terrorist attack,” the KRG said, in a statement.
“Our investigation is ongoing, and we will provide regular updates concerning its progress.”
The shooting occurred early in the afternoon as a group of employees and diplomats from the Turkish consulate in Erbil arrived at a restaurant in a neighborhood on the western side of the city. An unidentified assailant opened fire and killed two people and severely injured another who later died of his wounds while receiving medical care at a nearby hospital.
Read More: Turkish consulate employee, 2 civilians killed in Erbil shooting: Security
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and the gunman is still at large, but many observers speculate the involvement of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), engaged in a decades-long insurgency against Turkey over Kurdish rights and self-rule that has resulted in the death of over 40,000 people on both sides.
Wednesday's shooting comes amid a recent uptick in deadly clashes between Turkish forces and PKK fighters in which Ankara’s fighter jets have killed multiple high-ranking members of the group while bombarding its bases and outposts within the Kurdistan Region.
One PKK official, however, has denied its fighters had anything to do with the killings.
“We have no information regarding the incident and only heard about it through the media,” read a statement by Diyar Deniz, media director of the PKK’s armed wing, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG).
In the hours that followed the shooting, Kurdish security (Asayish) said, “We condemn in the strongest terms the shooting in a restaurant in Erbil today,” adding, “We assure our citizens and foreign diplomats in particular that all necessary precautions will be taken to ensure the safety and security of the Kurdistan Region and its peoples.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry also confirmed on Wednesday that “an official” from their Erbil Consulate-General was killed in “a heinous attack,” while outside the compound.
Editing by John J. Catherine