At least three people died in an air raid by Turkey on Tuesday (August 17th) against a clinic in northwestern Iraq, a region where Ankara regularly carries out operations against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Read also: Armenia, Libya, Iraq: the drone revolution on the battlefield
The PKK, a group described as "
terrorist
" by Turkey and its Western allies, has rear bases and training camps in the Sinjar region, where the strike on Tuesday took place, as well as in Iraqi Kurdistan region. autonomous, border of Turkey.
It is Turkey's second deadly raid in two days in the Sinjar region, home to a large Yazidi community, a minority that had been persecuted by the Islamic State group from 2014.
Three drone strikes
The Turkish raids are causing tensions with the government in Baghdad, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeats that his country intends to "
deal
" with the PKK in these regions if Iraq is "
not in a position to do so
".
The bombing on Tuesday was carried out by Turkey, a senior Iraqi official confirmed to AFP.
According to a doctor in Sinjar, the capital of the region of the same name, at least three people were killed and five others were injured.
This air raid consisted of three "
drone
"
strikes
, another source said, and it "
completely destroyed the clinic
", located in the village of Sekaina, told AFP Jalal Khalef Bisso, deputy mayor of Sinjar.
Turkey, which has de facto set up around ten military bases for 25 years in Iraqi Kurdistan, launched a new military campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq in the spring, often by air, sometimes by land. Ankara intends to liquidate the rear bases of the PKK, which since 1984 has delivered a bloody guerrilla war on Turkish soil that has killed more than 40,000. Baghdad regularly denounces violations of its sovereignty. And the Iraqi authorities have repeatedly summoned the Turkish ambassador but never took a more drastic step against Ankara, one of their primary trading partners.
