BAGHDAD, Aug 18 (NNN-NINA) – At least 18 militants from the outlawed Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed yesterday, in an airstrike by a drone, near the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq, a Kurdish security source said.
The airstrike took place in the afternoon, when a Turkish drone bombed a school building used by PKK members as a clinic, in a village near the town of Sinjar, some 100 km west of Nineveh’s provincial capital, Mosul, Luqman Gally, commander of the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces in the area, said.
The attack resulted in the killing of 18 PKK members, including senior local leader, Madhloom Rousi, Gally said, stressing that, other bodies are still under the debris.
The airstrike is the second in two successive days, as an aircraft bombed a vehicle in the old market, in the centre of Sinjar, killing Saeed Hassan Saeed, a leading figure in the Sinjar Protection Units (YBS), also known as Shingal (Sinjar) Resistance Units, and two of his aides, along with wounding two of Saeed’s sons at the scene, according to Gally.
The YBS is a Yazidi militia, formed in Iraq in 2007, to protect the Yazidi community in Iraq. The group has strong links to the PKK group.
The PKK is seen by Turkey as a “terrorist” group, and Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes, and artillery bombardment against their positions in northern Iraq, especially the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the PKK.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.
