Iraq calls on Turkey to ‘apologize’ for shelling Sulaymaniyah airport

Iraq called on Turkey on Saturday to apologize for what it said was an attack on Sulaymaniyah airport in Iraq’s north, saying the Turkish government must cease hostilities on Iraqi soil.

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

Lawk Ghafuri, head of foreign media affairs for the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), wrote in a Twitter post late on Friday that a drone attack hit the vicinity of Sulaymaniyah airport on Friday but caused no damage or delays or suspension of flights.

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

Turkey’s armed forces have conducted several large-scale military operations including airstrikes over the decades in northern Iraq and northern Syria against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, ISIS and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The attack claims came a few days after Turkey closed its airspace to aircraft traveling to and from Sulaymaniyah due to what it said was intensified activity there by PKK militants.

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