Iraq Condemns ‘Repeated Turkish Attacks’ after Kurdish Officers Killed

Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid speaks during a news conference as an ancient artifact brought back from Italy is displayed at the Peace Palace inside the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 18, 2023. (AP)
Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid speaks during a news conference as an ancient artifact brought back from Italy is displayed at the Peace Palace inside the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 18, 2023. (AP)
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Iraq Condemns ‘Repeated Turkish Attacks’ after Kurdish Officers Killed

Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid speaks during a news conference as an ancient artifact brought back from Italy is displayed at the Peace Palace inside the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 18, 2023. (AP)
Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid speaks during a news conference as an ancient artifact brought back from Italy is displayed at the Peace Palace inside the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 18, 2023. (AP)

Iraq's President Abdel Latif Rashid condemned on Tuesday "repeated Turkish attacks", a day after a drone strike on a northern airfield killed three Kurdish counterterrorism officers.

"The Turkish ambassador will be called in to receive a letter of protest addressed to the Turkish president", Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Rashid's office said in a statement.

"Mercy be on the martyrs of Iraq, the civilian and military heroes killed by repeated Turkish attacks."

Turkish authorities have not commented on Monday's strike which killed three members of the counterterrorism forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region and wounded three others at Arbat airfield, southeast of the city of Sulaymaniyah.

While such attacks against the Iraqi Kurdish security services are extremely rare, Ankara is leading a quickening campaign in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria, targeting Kurdish fighters.

A senior military official in Baghdad said that the drone which killed the counterterrorism officers had originated in Türkiye.

Around 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Monday, "the drone entered Iraqi airspace, crossing the border from Türkiye, and bombarded the Arbat airfield," which is mainly used by crop-spraying aircraft, said General Yehya Rassoul, spokesman of the federal armed forces commander in chief.

"This attack constitutes a violation of Iraq's sovereignty", he said, adding: "Iraq reserves the right to put a stop to these violations."

"These repeated attacks are incompatible with the principle of good neighborliness between states. They threaten to undermine Iraq's efforts to build positive and balanced political, economic and security relations with its neighbors," Rassoul said.

On Sunday, a Turkish drone strike killed a senior official and three fighters of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in the Sinjar Mountains of northwestern Iraq, Iraqi Kurdish authorities said.

Ankara and its Western allies classify the PKK as a "terrorist" organization.

The United Nations mission in Iraq condemned the attack on Arbat airfield.

"Attacks repeatedly violating Iraqi sovereignty must stop," it said. "Security concerns must be addressed through dialogue and diplomacy -- not strikes."

The Turkish army rarely comments on its strikes in Iraq but routinely conducts military operations against PKK rear-bases in autonomous Kurdistan as well as in Sinjar district.

The PKK has been waging a deadly insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades and the conflict has repeatedly spilt across the border into northern Iraq.

Türkiye operates dozens of military posts in northern Iraq initially established under an agreement struck in the eighties with the government of late longtime ruler Saddam Hussein.

In April, Baghdad accused Ankara of carrying out a "bombardment" near Sulaymaniyah airport while US soldiers and the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces -- a US-backed alliance dominated by the PKK's Syrian Kurdish ally, the People's Defense Units (YPG) -- were present.

That strike too drew condemnation from the office of President Rashid, who is himself a Kurd.



Palestinians Must Not Be Expelled from Gaza, Berlin Says After Trump Comments 

Internally displaced Palestinians make their way from southern to northern Gaza along Al-Rashid road, central Gaza Strip, 27 January 2025. (EPA)
Internally displaced Palestinians make their way from southern to northern Gaza along Al-Rashid road, central Gaza Strip, 27 January 2025. (EPA)
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Palestinians Must Not Be Expelled from Gaza, Berlin Says After Trump Comments 

Internally displaced Palestinians make their way from southern to northern Gaza along Al-Rashid road, central Gaza Strip, 27 January 2025. (EPA)
Internally displaced Palestinians make their way from southern to northern Gaza along Al-Rashid road, central Gaza Strip, 27 January 2025. (EPA)

The Palestinian population must not be expelled from Gaza, the German foreign ministry said on Monday after US President Donald Trump said Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians.

Asked for a reaction to Trump's comments, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Berlin shared the view of "the European Union, our Arab partners, the United Nations ... that the Palestinian population must not be expelled from Gaza and Gaza must not be permanently occupied or recolonized by Israel."

Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. Both countries and other Arab nations reject the idea of Palestinians in Gaza being moved to their countries. Gaza is land that Palestinians would want as part of a future Palestinian state.