Suspected Turkish drone strike kills three in Sulaymaniyah’s Khalakan sub-district

SULAYMANIYAH — A suspected Turkish drone strike targeted a vehicle in the Khalakan sub-district of Dukan, Sulaymaniyah governorate, killing three individuals, according to the American human rights organization, Community Peacemaker Teams – Iraqi Kurdistan.

The strike, which took place around 1:25 p.m. on Wednesday, hit a Land Cruiser carrying a father and his two sons from the Sangasar sub-district in Pshdar district, Sulaymaniyah. Malband Khalakani, director of Shahid Sabah Khalakani Hospital, confirmed the deaths to 964media, stating, “A Land Cruiser was targeted by a drone, resulting in the deaths of three people.”

The vehicle was hit near the entrance of the sub-district, close to the Dastan gas station on the main road between Dukan and Rania.

Turkey has intensified its operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its affiliates in the Kurdistan Region through both ground and aerial campaigns, known as Operation Claw-Lock, which began in April 2022. In addition to targeting mountainous areas, Turkey has conducted repeated drone strikes on vehicles traveling major roads, focusing primarily on PKK officials, affiliates, journalists working for PKK-linked outlets, and civilians in Sulaymaniyah governorate.

On August 23, 2024, a Turkish drone strike near the village of Goptapa on the Sulaymaniyah-Halabja road targeted a vehicle belonging to Chatr Multimedia Production, which operates Sterk TV, a channel affiliated with the PKK. Two media workers were killed, and a third was seriously injured. This incident follows a pattern of similar strikes, including one in August 2023, where another Turkish drone strike on the Dukan-Khalakan road killed one person.

These drone strikes have also extended outside the Kurdistan Region, particularly in the Sinjar area of Nineveh governorate, where PKK-affiliated Sinjar Resistance Units are active. On July 8, a suspected Turkish drone strike in Sinjar hit a car carrying a crew from Cira TV, another PKK-linked media outlet focused on Yazidi issues, killing reporter Murad Mirza and injuring two of his colleagues.