Kurdistan security releases photo of additional suspect in Erbil diplomat shooting
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Counter-terrorism officials from the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) on Saturday released photographs of an additional suspect still at large and wanted for involvement in the recent brazen daytime assassination of a Turkish diplomat at a restaurant in Erbil.
Along with the image was a request for members of the public to contact security forces with any information of his whereabouts or that could otherwise lead to his capture.
“Suspect Siyako Baqi Abdul Kareem [Bradosti] is wanted by the security services of the Kurdistan Region. He is accused of taking part in the terrorist activity of July 17 in the city of Erbil, where an employee of the Turkish Consulate-General in Erbil, along with two other citizens, lost their lives,” read the statement issued by the Kurdistan Region’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).
The statement came one day after the KRSC released a video with filmed confessions of six others charged with planning and carrying out the attack in which they admitted that the attack was instigated and organized by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group engaged in a decades-long insurgency against Turkey over Kurdish rights and self-rule.
Read More: Watch: Security footage of Erbil diplomat killing; Video confessions implicate PKK
Shortly after the incident, a PKK official denied the group's involvement. On Wednesday, a senior PKK commander said the diplomat was assassinated by some youths and “sympathizers” of the PKK, remarking, “Thank you to whoever carried this out.” Turkey, the EU, and the US have designated the PKK as a “terrorist organization.”
Bradosti is from the town of Sidakan in Erbil province, which lies along the border with Turkey. He is the brother of one of the suspects already arrested and featured confessing on Friday's video, Rajab Baqi Abdul Kareem Bradosti. Other suspects as well confirmed Siyako’s involvement in the attack in their respective confessions.
Kurdish security previously released a photo of Mazloum Dagh, who it said was the primary suspect in the attack. He was arrested two days later.
In his confession, Dagh said that on the day following the shooting, he and another suspect met up with Siyako Bradosti, who assisted them by taking them to the office of a company he worked for to temporarily hide them from authorities.
Editing by John J. Catherine