The Iraqi House of Representatives convened on Saturday to discuss the situation surrounding the artillery attack that killed nine civilians in Duhok province in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) on 20 July.
The MPs decided to form a joint committee to investigate the facts at the scene of the attack, which according to Iraqi government officials was carried out by Turkish forces.
A member of the Parliamentary Security and Defence committee, Mahdi Amerli, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the investigation is to be conducted in coordination with the Turkish embassy in Baghdad.
“The Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs, the Chief of Staff of the army and the Commander of Joint Operations confirmed two steps to be taken, the first towards legal procedures by submitting international complaints, and the other for ending the presence of Turkish forces in Iraq,” Amerli said.
“A committee of parliamentary security, defence and foreign relations has been formed with the participation of the chief of staff of the army, the ministry of defence and joint operations to investigate the facts on the ground at the site of the incident and find out the source of the bombardement, in cooperation with the Turkish embassy.”
In another statement, the Iraqi ministry of foreign affairs announced that the Iraqi chargé d’affaires in Ankara had been recalled to Baghdad.
Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Al-Sahaf also said that “the ministry sent a letter of complaint to the United Nations Security Council and requested that an emergency session is held to discuss the Turkish aggression.”