CPTnet
8
November 2012
IRAQI KURDISTAN:
Fatal Turkish bombing prompts call to defend Kurdish civilians
Turkish air strikes in northern Iraqi Kurdistan on 7 November killed two civilian men and injured two others.
About 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, 7 November, Turkish military
jets attacked a group of Kurdish men while they were resting during their
journey, transporting goods over the mountains between Iran and Iraqi
Kurdistan.
The
CPT Iraqi Kurdistan team met with one of the survivors, Rebaz Ahmed Ismail, and
his family at a hospital in Sulaimani on 8 November.
Rebaz told CPT
that he and his group had been traveling this specific road into Iran for at least three years. He stressed
that neither he nor any of his group were armed.
Rebaz lost one
leg in this attack; the other was seriously injured. Two of Rebaz’s friends
were killed and another was seriously wounded.
A large number
of jet planes were observed flying over the mountain region in the two days
prior to the attack.
Apart from two
news agencies, no other media and no governmental representatives had met with this
survivor of a fatal military attack within Iraqi Kurdistan by one of its
neighbors.
Turkish cross-border
attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan intensified after the U.S. began providing Turkey intelligence in 2007. After a grassroots
campaign by CPT and local partners, civilian casualties ceased for over a year
until Wednesday’s attack.
CPT calls on
journalists to heighten their coverage of Turkish attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan and to highlight the resulting civilian casualties.
CPT calls on
Sulaimani governorate and Kurdish Regional Government to meet with Rebaz and to
support him and other victims (and their families) of the Turkish cross-border
attacks.
CPT calls on the
Kurdish Regional and the Iraqi Central Governments to pressure Turkey to cease all military action within Iraqi
Kurdistan.
Finally, CPT
calls on the international community to speak out against Turkey’s violations of the human rights of Kurds
on both sides of its national boundaries.
