Turkish jets bomb outskirts of Kurdish refugee camp in disputed Makhmour
In a statement published on Friday, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced they had carried out “a large-scale air raid” on Qerechukh Mountain, destroying PKK targets.
The raid came two days after gunmen killed a Turkish diplomat along with two other individuals at an upscale restaurant in Erbil.
On Thursday evening, the Kurdistan Region’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) identified the lead suspect in their investigation into the deadly incident as a man in his twenties by the name of Mazloum Dagh, born in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (Amed) in Turkey.
Read More: KRG names suspect from Diyarbakir in Erbil shooting that killed Turkish diplomat, civilians
The PKK denied responsibility for the shooting in comments issued shortly after the incident.
In December, Turkish warplanes targeted sites near the refugee camp again, claiming later in a statement that, along with a similar operation outside the town of Sinjar (Shingal), they had “neutralized” eight members of the PKK.
The group is currently headquartered in the harsh mountainous areas on the autonomous Kurdistan Region border with Turkey, of which the army frequently shells in search of members of the PKK, and has led a decades-long insurgency against Ankara over Kurdish rights in the country.
Editing by Nadia Riva