BAGHDAD (Xinhua) – Five
people have been killed in a Turkish drone strike in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, official sources said.
The five, including a woman, were killed when a Turkish drone bombarded their vehicle moving near a village in the west of the provincial capital Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, according to a statement by the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service.
The attack occurred when a Turkish drone bombed a civilian vehicle in the west of Mosul and killed four men and a woman, said Governor of Nineveh Province Najm al-Jubouri in a separate statement.
Al-Jubouri strongly condemned the drone strike, saying such attacks would destabilize the security situation in the Iraqi province and demanding a protest by the Iraqi central government.
Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes, and artillery bombardments in Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, especially the Qandil Mountains.
Turkey launched a new cross-border incursion into Iraq, dubbed Operation Claw-Lock, in April. The air-and-ground military attacks target suspected strongholds of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the Zab, Basiyan, Avasheen, and Korajiwar districts in the Kurdistan region.
The Iraqi government summoned the Turkish ambassador, Ali Riza Guney, shortly afterward and handed him a “strongly worded” protest note over the offensive, calling it a blatant violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty.
For its part, Ankara also summoned the Iraqi charge d’affaires and warned him that the military operations will continue if Baghdad does not take action against PKK members.
Last month, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry condemned in the strongest terms a Turkish drone strike in the Kurdistan region that killed several people, pledging that appropriate measures will be taken after the completion of an investigation into the deadly attack.
The ministry said in the statement, released on June 17, that such actions are “a threat to the security of ordinary people, several of whom lost their lives and sustained injuries as a result of the attack.”