Five killed in Iraq drone attack blamed on Turkey

Drone strikes targeting Kurdish rebels killed at least five people, including two civilians, in northern Iraq, Local officials and Kurdish militants reported Saturday that blaming Turkey for the attack.

Turkey regularly assaults facilities and training camps of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

Officials say Saturday’s drone strikes targeted mountainous parts of Chamchamal district, west of Sulaimaniyah.

“Two Turkish drones struck twice,” said Heimin Bahjat, mayor of the village of Agjalar. “The second strike hit a pick-up truck, killing five people, including two civilians.”

A medical source confirmed that the bodies of two civilians had been brought to Chamchamal hospital.

A PKK spokesman said: “Three… guerrillas were targeted by the Turkish armed drones and heavily wounded. When the civilians ran to help them and take them to the hospital, they were also targeted by the drones. Two civilians lost their lives, along with the three wounded guerrillas.”

There was no immediate reaction from Turkey.

Repeated Turkish operations targeting Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq have tested relations between Baghdad and Ankara, key trade partners.

They have also complicated ties with authorities in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region who have an uneasy relationship with the PKK.

Three Turkish troops were killed in an attack blamed on the PKK in northern Iraq in December.

A Turkish airstrike on a clinic in northeastern Iraq, where a wounded PKK official was being treated, killed at least three people last August.