Eight Killed, 23 Injured in Iraq Shelling Blamed on Turkey

Date: 20 July 2022 - 21:54

News ID: ۱۰۴۹۰۴

ERBIL (AFP) – Eight civilians including two children were killed and 23 wounded in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region on Wednesday, when artillery shells hit a park in an attack local officials blamed on Turkey.

Mushir Bashir, the head of Zakho region, said the victims were mainly “Arab Iraqi tourists, mostly from central and southern Iraq”, and blamed forces from across the border.

“Turkey hit the village twice today,” Bashir told AFP.

Bashir, speaking to a local broadcaster, said that “Turkish artillery fire on the tourist region of Parakh killed eight people and injured 23”.

A Kurdish government official had initially reported at least five dead from Turkish fire.

The victims were tourists who had come to the hill village of Parakh in Zakho district to escape sweltering temperatures further south in the country, Bashir added.

As well as two children, the dead included three men and three women, Zakho health official Amir Ali told reporters.

A source in Turkey’s defense ministry said that he had “no information reporting or confirming artillery fire in this area”.

Turkey launched a new offensive in northern Iraq in April dubbed “Operation Claw-Lock”, which it said targets militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Designated as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, the PKK has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Six Police Killed Near Capital

In another incident, six Iraqi police were killed and seven wounded early Wednesday in an attack by Daesh on their position in a remote area north of Baghdad, a military source said.

“Between 10 and 15 Daesh group militants attacked this federal police forward position around 12:30 am (2130 GMT Tuesday). The attack lasted around an hour,” the source said, asking not to be identified.

The attackers struck near the village of al-Jillam in an area 140 kilometers north of Baghdad where the terrorist group remains active.