Airstrike on northern Iraq navy airport kills 3

IRBIL, Iraq — An airstrike on a navy airport in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area killed three individuals Monday, native officers mentioned.

The area’s counter-terrorism service mentioned in a press release that the assault on the Arbat Airport, 28 kilometers southeast of the town of Suleimaniyah killed three of its personnel and injured three members of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

The airport had lately undergone rehabilitation to facilitate the coaching of anti-terror items affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of many two often-competing foremost events within the area, whose seat of energy is in Sulaymaniyah.

The counter-terrorism service didn’t blame the assault on any occasion, however the Sulaymaniyah governorate in a press release urged “nations within the area to respect the sovereignty of the Kurdistan Area and Iraq,” implying that the strike was carried out by Turkey.

Additionally on Monday, the Kurdistan Nationwide Congress, an umbrella group of Kurdish teams and events, mentioned in a press release that one in every of its members was “assassinated” contained in the group’s workplace in Erbil with out giving additional particulars.

Turkey typically launches strikes in opposition to targets in Syria and Iraq that it believes to be affiliated to the Kurdistan Staff’ Social gathering, or PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency in opposition to Turkey because the Eighties.

In April, Turkey closed its airspace to flights to and from the Sulaymaniyah Worldwide Airport, citing an alleged improve in Kurdish militant exercise threatening flight security.

Days later, the Syrian Democratic Forces — Kurdish-led forces working in northeast Syria which are allied to america in its struggle in opposition to the Islamic State however thought of by Turkey to be an offshoot of the PKK — accused Turkey of launching a strike on the airport when SDF commander Mazloum Abdi was on the web site. Abdi was unhurt.