Iraqi Kurds gathered in the town of Ranya in the district of Sulaymaniyah to protest against Monday’s Turkish drone strike that left two civilians wounded, Roj News reported on Tuesday.
Protesters called on the Iraqi authorities to take measures to prevent Turkey’s airstrikes and criticised the media coverage that included what they called fake news.
Bestun Abdullah, one of the victims of the drone strike, was also at the demonstration.
“We were on the way home when our car caught fire,” Abdullah said. “We did not realise it was a drone strike, people dragged us out of the car and told us a drone hit us.”
Abdullah told reporters that he was not a political person, and that he was not affiliated with any political faction or organisation.
Several outlets controlled by Iraq’s Kurdistan region’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), including Rudaw and Kurdistan24, reported that the victims of the attack were members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the survivors deny.
“Unfortunately, some irresponsible media organs reported that we were members of a political party. That is incorrect, they fabricated that propaganda,” Abdullah said.
Protesters are demanding an apology from the media organs that ran these false stories.