Turkey to investigate civilian casualties in north Iraq

Turkey is to investigate reports of civilian casualties during recent airstrikes on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

The announcement came after Kurdish sources and local journalists reported that the raids in the Qandil mountains, where the PKK has numerous bases, had caused casualties among the civil population.

“Real time intelligence was used in the air operations that bear the highest standards,” the ministry said in a statement. “Operation areas were picked after a full verdict that the targeted region hosted no civilian population and the utmost effort is always spent to avoid civilian casualties.”

The statement added that a camp at Zergele was being used as a logistics and command base. “Zergele terrorist camp was not hosting any civilians but senior PKK figures, while the terrorist organization is known to use civilians as human shields.”

The investigation will be carried out jointly with officials from the Kurdish regional government in Iraq and the results made public, the ministry said.