ANKARA — An Iraqi commander stated Thursday that the Iraqi military shot down a Turkish drone over its northern airspace lower than two weeks after the 2 nations signed a significant navy cooperation deal.
In a extensively circulated video on social media, Brig. Gen. Abdul Salam Hamoudi Ramadan, who launched himself as deputy commander of the Air Protection Power within the northern area, says the drone was downed after violating Iraqi airspace. “A Turkish drone that entered Iraqi airspace from Sulaimaniyah has been downed,” he stated.
“It violated our airspace. It got here to the Cimen area by way of Sulaimaniyah,” he added. There was no formal assertion from both Ankara or the Iraqi authorities as of this writing.
Irak’tan ilk resmi açıklama.
Türk İHA’sı olduğunu, Irak Hava Savunma Gücü Komutan Yardımcısı Abdülselam Hammud açıkladı. pic.twitter.com/vB1QZJDVnm
— Reşat Salihi (@resatmuhtaroglu) August 29, 2024
Turkish drones are steadily seen in northern Iraqi airspace as they conduct focused assaults on Kurdistan Staff Celebration (PKK) militants. This incident marks the primary time a Turkish drone has been shot down by the Iraqi navy.
Headquartered within the mountains of northern Iraq, the PKK has been waging an armed marketing campaign towards Turkey for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey since 1984.
Native Iraqi information shops reported that the drone fell within the entrance yard of a home in Kirkuk and that no casualties have been reported. The northeastern province of Kirkuk — bordering Sulaimaniyah province — has lengthy been disputed between its a number of ethnic communities, together with Turkmens. Final week, Rebwar Taha, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan who Turkey has accused of collaborating with the PKK, was elected because the governor of town. The PUK, one of many two dominant political events in Iraqi Kurdistan, additionally controls Sulaimaniyah, situated west of Kirkuk.
Turkey’s airspace has been closed to flights to and from Sulaimaniyah airport since April 2023.
Native stories recognized the downed drone as an Aksungur, manufactured by Turkish Aerospace Industries. It stays unclear whether or not the drone was armed.
‘Historic’ safety deal
The stories of the downing come lower than two weeks after Ankara and Baghdad signed a safety deal to strengthen their cooperation and coordination in Turkey’s combat towards the PKK.
The Memorandum of Understanding on Army, Safety, and Counterterrorism Cooperation, signed on Aug. 16, included an settlement to construct a joint navy coordination middle for Ankara and Baghdad to be primarily based in Iraq, in addition to to show the Turkish navy base within the northern Iraqi city of Bashiqa over to the Iraqi authorities.
Each Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan and his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, hailed the settlement as “historic” throughout their joint press convention in Ankara on the identical day.
After many years of slamming Turkish navy operations towards the PKK as violations of its sovereignty, Baghdad banned the group in March, partly giving in to Turkish strain to designate the group as a terrorist group. Along with Ankara, Washington and the vast majority of European capitals take into account the PKK a terror outfit.
In April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid his first go to to Iraq in over a decade. Throughout Erdogan’s go to, Turkey, Iraq, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates signed a deal for a significant transit hall venture known as Improvement Highway.
Because the Iraqi commander introduced the downing of the drone, officers from the 4 nations have been readying to collect in Istanbul on Thursday for a second high-level discuss on the venture to hyperlink Basra’s al-Faw port, which is presently beneath development, to Turkey by way of a 1,275-kilometer (792-mile) rail and street community.
