BAGHDAD— The death toll in a Turkish air raid on a
clinic in Iraq's Sinjar province has risen to eight, local officials said
Wednesday, a day after the attack.
اضافة اعلان
Turkey regularly targets northwest Iraq in operations
against the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist
organization.
The Kurdish separatists have waged a decades-long insurgency
against Turkey and maintain bases in the rugged mountains across the border in
Iraq.
"The number of martyrs in the Turkish bombardment is
eight," officials said in Sinjar, updating an initial toll of three.
Those killed were four employees of the clinic and four
fighters from the PKK-linked 80th Brigade of Iraq's powerful, state-sponsored
Hashed al-Shaabi coalition.
The 80th Brigade is made up of Iraq's Yazidi minority, who
were persecuted by Daesh from 2014 and whose bastion is Sinjar.
One local source said drones were used in the attack.
On Monday, another Turkish strike killed a senior official
from the 80th Brigade.
Repeated Turkish raids have stoked tensions with Baghdad,
but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that his country will "deal
with" the PKK presence if Iraq is unable to do so.
Iraq regularly decries violations of its sovereignty and has
repeatedly summoned the Turkish ambassador over Ankara's cross-border military
campaign.
On Wednesday, Iraq's national security council, chaired by
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, issued a statement condemning
"unilateral military actions, which violate the principles of good
neighborliness".
Making no specific mention of Turkey, the PKK or the recent
attacks, the statement also rejected "the use of Iraqi land for settling
scores".
Turkey has installed around a dozen military bases over the
past 25 years in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, and it launched a new
cross-border offensive in the spring against the PKK, consisting of both aerial
and ground attacks.
Ankara is one of Baghdad's key trading partners.
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