ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A senior Commander of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Wednesday praised the perpetrators of a recent high-profile shooting in Erbil, and denied the involvement of the group in the attack.
On July 17, a Turkish diplomat, along with two other locals of the Kurdistan Region, were killed in Erbil in a fancy restaurant, HuQQabaz, an incident that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) strongly condemned and labeled a “premeditated terrorist attack.”
Read More: Turkish consulate employee, 2 civilians killed in Erbil shooting: Security
Days after the attack, Kurdish security and counter-terrorism forces announced the arrest of two suspects involved in the attack, a man in his twenties by the name of Mazloum Dagh, born in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (Amed) in Turkey, and his accomplice Muhammad Biskisz, who also goes by three other names: Dizhwar, Mamand, and Yusif.
Read More: Kurdistan security arrest suspects in Turkish diplomat killing in Erbil
Although investigations by local Kurdish authorities on the attack are still ongoing, most eyes are on the PKK’s involvement in the shooting due to the prevalence of a decades-long conflict and hostilities between the group and the Turkish government.
Bahoz Erdal, a senior PKK commander, on Wednesday, denied the involvement of the group in the attack but noted the act was carried out by some youths and “sympathizers” of the group.
“Thank you to whoever carried this out,” Erdal said during an interview with the PKK-affiliated Sterk TV channel.
He claimed the Turkish diplomat, Osman Kose, killed in the Erbil shooting, was a member of the Turkish intelligence service (MIT) responsible for anti-PKK operations in the Kurdistan Region.
Erdal purported Kose was involved in the Turkish airstrike that recently killed a senior PKK leader, Diyar Ghareeb Mohammed, claiming the murder of Kose in the Kurdish capital was “revenge.”
Turkey, the EU, and the US have designated the PKK a “terrorist organization.”
The group has been engaged in an armed insurgency against Turkey over Kurdish rights and self-rule since the early 1980s, in a conflict that has resulted in the death of over 40,000 people on both sides.
Over the past few years, Turkey has carried out military operations against PKK fighters based within the Kurdistan Region’s borders with continued regularity. Turkish forces have crossed into the region up to 30 kilometers deep in some areas to target the group.
Such attacks have led to the evacuation of many villagers from the Kurdistan Region as Ankara’s warplanes continue to damage residential and agricultural lands, and, on occasion, kill civilian bystanders about whom there are no claims of PKK affiliation.
Editing by Nadia Riva