A person was fatally wounded in a drone strike that targeted a civilian vehicle in the Makhmour refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) around noon on Saturday.
As the person, identified as Hacı Mirza Eli, was taken to hospital for treatment, residents of the camp gathered and marched to the hospital to protest outside. The residents then marched to the office of the United Nations where the co-chair of the camp’s Democratic People’s Council, Filiz Budak, addressed the crowd.
She said:
“The blood-thirsty Turkish state resumed its brutal attacks on Makhmour Camp today (…) Our children are being massacred by chemical weapons in Avashin today. Despite everything, they continue to resist Turkey’s tanks and artillery from their tunnels and caves. No matter what happens, we will remain standing and continue to resist. We will not allow those engaged in plans to defeat the Kurds and the liberation movement to realise their objectives.”
Hacı Mirza Eli died in hospital later, Roj News reported.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two major political parties in the KRI, released a statement condemning the drone strike:
“We call on the Iraqi government to fulfil its constitutional and national obligation to protect Iraqi soil and air space, including the KRI. The Iraqi government should approach the Turkish government about these violations through diplomatic channels. The KRI administration should summon Turkey’s ambassador and communicate to him its discontent with these attacks. There can be no excuse for border violations of this nature, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.”
