Iraq summoned on Friday Ankara’s ambassador to Baghdad, Fatih Yildiz, after a Turkish drone strike against a refugee camp east of Mosul.
The strikes on the Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq were carried out by a Turkish military drone that was detected by Iraq’s air defense, a statement from the foreign ministry said. Two refugee women were killed.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim stressed to Yildiz “the need to stop such serious violations and respect the principles of good neighbourliness,” according to a statement.
Yildiz was handed a letter of complaint, with the ministry expressing “condemnation in the strongest possible terms over these Turkish attacks”, saying they “constituted a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
The Turkish government claims the refugee camp is a hotbed of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, an outlawed group in Turkey that is fighting an insurgency against Ankara.
Turkey has repeatedly struck PKK positions in northern Iraq in efforts to cut the group’s supply routes.
