Peshmerga member killed in Turkish airstrike in Sidakan

SIDAKAN — A Turkish airstrike in Nawdarok village in Erbil’s Sidakan district killed an off-duty member of the Peshmerga on Thursday.

The victim, identified as 46-year-old Serwer Qader, a father of three, was reportedly traveling in a vehicle that was struck during the airstrike. The incident occurred late Thursday night, but the vehicle and Qader’s remains were discovered submerged in a river on Friday morning.

“The hospital received a body this morning, a victim of last night’s airstrike,” said Karwan Faisal, director of Sidakan Hospital. “The body had extensive damage and was transferred to the Soran forensic department for autopsy.”

This is the second reported fatality in the region from airstrikes in less than a week. On April 13, another person was killed in a suspected Turkish airstrike in the village of Galala, in Sulaymaniyah’s Sharbazher district.

Turkey has a long history of conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it considers a terrorist organization.

Turkish airstrikes in the Kurdistan Region target suspected PKK positions. The U.S.-based Community Peacemaker Teams-Iraqi Kurdistan (CPT) previously reported that Turkish military operations and airstrikes resulted in the deaths of 11 civilians and injuries to 13 others in 2023.