Two civilians killed in Turkish drone airstrike in Northern Iraq – Official Media

"Turkish drones violated the Iraqi airspace and targeted a double-cabin pick-up vehicle in the village of Bahrava in the Khana Sor area in the north of the Sinjar district at 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening [16:00 GMT], which resulted in the death of two civilians. The driver survived," the service said in a statement, quoted by the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

Another site in Sinjar was also targeted, but a number of victims is yet unknown, the statement read, adding that ambulances rushed to the site of the incident to evacuate those killed and injured.

Northern Iraq is the Kurdish-populated region that Ankara regularly launches attacks on, as designates the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a terrorist group.

Turkey has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish a Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, since the early 1980s. The PKK and Ankara signed a ceasefire agreement in 2013, but it collapsed two years later over several terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK militants.

Since PKK military bases are located in northern Iraq, Ankara regularly conducts land and air operations in the region.

In mid-August, the Iraqi security forces also reported that at least two officers of the country’s border guard had been killed in an attack by a Turkish UAV. In response, the Iraqi authorities canceled a visit of Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar to Baghdad and summoned the Turkish ambassador to the Iraqi capital.