Iraq calls on Turkey to apologize for attack on Sulaymaniyah airport

ERBIL, Iraq, April 8 (Reuters) – The Iraqi government called on Turkey on Saturday to apologize for what it said was an attack on Sulaymaniyah airport in northern Iraq, saying Ankara must cease hostilities on Iraqi soil.

The Iraqi presidency said in a statement that Turkey had no legal justification to continue “intimidating civilians under the pretext that forces hostile to it are present on Iraqi soil”.

“In this regard we call on the Turkish government to take responsibility and present an official apology,” it said.

Lawk Ghafuri, head of foreign media affairs for the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), said a drone attack hit the vicinity of Sulaymaniyah airport on Friday but it caused no damage nor delays or suspension of flights.

A Turkish defence ministry official told Reuters no Turkish Armed Forces operation took place in that region on Friday.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement on Saturday that its chief, Mazloum Abdi, was at the airport at the time of the alleged attack but “no harm was done”.

Abdi condemned the attack on Saturday but did not mention that he was targeted.

An informed source close to the leadership of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the party that controls the Sulaimaniya area, and two Kurdish security officials also confirmed that Abdi and three U.S. military personnel were near the airport.

The three sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no one was injured or killed in the incident.

A U.S. official confirmed there was a strike on a convoy in the area and U.S. military personnel were in it, but there were no casualties.

While Turkey views the Kurdish-led forces in Syria as terrorists and a national security threat, the United States considers the SDF as an ally that has helped drive Islamic State from vast areas of Syria.

Turkey has conducted several military operations including air strikes over the decades in northern Iraq and northern Syria against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, Islamic State and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Claims of an attack came days after Turkey closed its airspace to aircraft travelling to and from Sulaymaniyah due to what it said was intensified activity there by PKK militants.

The outlawed PKK, which has led an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Reporting by Amina Ismail; Additional reporting by Hatem Maher and Enas Alashray in Cairo, Ali Sultan in Sulaymaniyah, Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara, Idrees Ali in Washington, Timour Azhari in Beuirt; Editing by Mike Harrison and Angus MacSwan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.