Iraq Kurds accuse PKK of Turkish diplomat's murder
The
authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have accused Turkish Kurdish rebels of the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of ordering the July 17 murder of the Turkish
vice-consul in the regional capital Erbil.
The
federal government in Baghdad has often blamed the PKK for carrying out attacks
against Turkish targets from its rear bases in Iraq's northern mountains, but a
statement issued late Friday was a rare accusation against their fellow Kurds
by the autonomous regional authorities.
The
PKK's armed wing had denied responsibility for the assassination.
But
the Iraqi Kurdish authorities said that based on a detailed confession by the
suspected Turkish Kurdish gunman, Mazloum Dag, 27, the murder was carried out
on the orders of top PKK commanders.
Turkish
Vice-Consul Osman Kose was gunned down with two Iraqis while they dined on a
restaurant terrace in Erbil.
Iraqi
Kurdish security services said that the murder had been three months in the
planning by PKK commanders in their heavily fortified hideouts in Iraq's Qandil
mountains.
They
said they had arrested three Turkish and three Iraqi suspects.
Dag's
arrest last Saturday was immediately seized on by the Turkish media as his
sister Dersim is a member of parliament for 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 the outlawed PKK.
The
HDP "strongly" condemned the Erbil attack, calling it an
"absolutely unacceptable provocation attempt."
In
May, Turkey launched a major ground offensive and bombing campaign against the
PKK in Qandil, the latest of many in the military's three and a half decade
campaign against the rebels.
Analysts
have suggested the attack on the Turkish diplomat might have been carried out
in retaliation for the killing of several PKK commanders in the latest bombing
campaign.
Following
Kose's murder, Turkey broadened its cross-border operations, launching air
strikes against PKK bases and members in the Kurdish-held Makhmur area south of
Iraq's second city Mosul.