A Turkish drone strike killed two senior Iraqi security officials, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday, marking the first time that Turkey’s operation to root out Kurdish rebels in Iraq’s north produced fatalities among high-ranking Iraqi personnel.
The drone targeted a vehicle belonging to Iraqi border guards in Bradost, north of Irbil, the military statement said, causing the deaths of two commanders and the vehicle’s driver.
Iraqi General Mohammed Rushdi, commander of the border guards’ 2nd Brigade and Iraqi Brigadier Zubair Hali, commander of the 3rd Regiment, were killed in the attack, Bradost Mayor Ihsan Chelebi said, adding that they had been establishing new posts in the area.
Attempts to reach Turkish military officials for comment were not successful.
Baghdad condemned the attack as a breach of Iraqi sovereignty and said that continued attacks would provoke a “review” of bilateral relations, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Iraq also canceled a scheduled visit today by Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar.
Two Iraqi security officials said that the border guard commanders were secretly meeting with members of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) during the attack.
Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization and has bombed their positions inside northern Iraq on several operations.
Five others were also killed in the attack, the security officials said, without saying whether they were military personnel or civilians.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Turkey has defended its operations in northern Iraq, saying that neither the Iraqi government nor Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region have acted to remove PKK insurgents, who allegedly use Iraq’s territory to stage attacks on Turkey.
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