Baghdad blamed Turkey, the nation next door for waging a cross-border incursion, for the artillery fire that killed nine people, including children, in a park in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region on Wednesday.
Baghdad reserves the right to reply, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi warned Turkey in an unusually harsh condemnation, labeling the artillery bombardment a “flagrant violation” of sovereignty. The Iraqi Kurdish government stands with Baghdad on this matter.
Iraq has decided to summon Turkey’s ambassador and recall its charge d’affaires from Ankara. It also requested a public apology from Turkey and the removal of its armed forces from all Iraqi land.
However, the Turkish foreign ministry claimed that terrorist organizations were behind these kinds of assaults and urged Baghdad to refrain from making public declarations “inspired by terrorist propaganda.”
According to Mushir Bashir, the chairman of the Zakho area, the deceased included Iraqi tourists who had traveled to the northern Iraqi hill hamlet of Parakh in the Zakho district to avoid the country’s oppressive heat in the south.
A witness reported seeing a flood of flames descend on the park’s water features, where people had been unwinding.
In April, Turkey began a campaign in northern Iraq known as “Operation Claw-Lock,” which was directed at the KWP fight.
The Iraqi Prime Minister has declared a day of mourning for the nine civilians killed in the strike.
