Turkish air strike in northern Iraq disregarded civilian safety
Turkey failed to take adequate precautions to
minimise civilian casualties during an air strike on a Kurdish armed group in
northern Iraq on June 25, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
“The Turkish military strike on opposition fighters
in a resort area seriously injured several civilians and could have harmed many
more,” Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights
Watch, said.
“The laws of war prohibit attacks in which the known
danger to civilians exceeds the expected military gain,” she said.
The airstrike killed a member of the Iranian
Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), and wounded three others. The attack also injured at least six
civilians and damaged the popular Kuna Masi water resort, at a confluence of
freshwater wells and springs in the region.
Turkey launched Operation Claw-Tiger on June 17, a
cross-border ground operation targeting the PKK - which has been fighting an
insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades - and its affiliates in
various regions of northern Iraq in response to an increase in attacks against
Turkish military forces.
Turkey regularly targets PKK in operations in
northern Iraq and on home soil.
