Iraq Kurds arrest suspect in killing of Turkish vice consul

ARBIL, IRAQ: Iraqi Kurdish authorities announced Saturday they had arrested a Kurdish man from Turkey identified as the suspected shooter in the murder of a Turkish diplomat. The autonomous region´s security council said its counterterrorism unit had arrested Mazloum Dag, a 27-year-old from Turkey´s Diyarbakir region. The council had put out a wanted notice for Dag a day earlier in connection to Wednesday´s killing of Turkish Vice Consul Osman Kose and two Iraqi nationals in the regional capital Arbil. Turkey´s Anadolu state news agency said the suspect is the brother of Dersim Dag, a member of Turkey´s main pro-Kurdish party, the People´s Democratic Party (HDP). The HDP, the country´s second largest opposition group, is regularly accused by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of links to Turkey´s outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK). It “strongly” condemned the Arbil attack, calling it an “absolutely unacceptable provocation attempt”. The HDP also slammed the accusation that one of its deputies was “designated as a target because of his brother”, without mentioning any names. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Ankara on Thursday launched a “comprehensive air operation” against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan´s Qandil mountain area. Since May, Turkey has been conducting a ground offensive and bombing campaign against Qandil to root out the PKK, considered a “terror organisation” by Ankara for its three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state. Other air strikes Thursday night targeted “PKK bases and members” in the Makhmur area south of Iraq´s northern city of Mosul, wounding two in a displacement camp, local sources told AFP. The attack on Wednesday saw at least one gunman with two pistols fire on a group of diplomats in a restaurant in Arbil. Kose and one Iraqi died Wednesday, while the second Iraqi succumbed to his wounds overnight.