Suspected Turkish drone strike kills married couple in Duhok's rural Dinarta subdistrict
Victims traveling by car
Suspected Turkish drone strike kills married couple in Duhok’s rural Dinarta subdistrict
DUHOK — A married couple was killed Monday morning in a suspected Turkish military drone strike near the village of Bamashmash in Dinarta subdistrict, located in Duhok’s Akre district, according to multiple sources who spoke with 964media.
The victims were traveling by car at the time of the attack.
A security source in Dinarta told 964media that the airstrike targeted the couple’s vehicle near Bamashmash. The victims, identified as 58-year-old Jaafar Jalal and his 48-year-old wife, Tine Mohammed Noaman, were residents of a nearby village who frequently visited the area for livestock farming.
Videos shared by relatives of the victims show several vehicles arriving at the scene to transport the bodies.
“The bodies of the two civilians were transported to the Akre Forensic Medicine Department for examination and were later handed over to their families,” said Nechirvan Fakhraddin, a health official in Akre, speaking to 964media.
Kamaran Mala Othman of the U.S.-based Community Peacemaker Teams, said, “The attack occurred at approximately 11:30 a.m., when a Turkish military drone struck the border area near Bamashmash in Dinarta.”
Duhok governorate—particularly areas of Amedi—has long been affected by the conflict between Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Turkish troops, targeting PKK fighters, have advanced up to 15 kilometers into Kurdistan Region territory in recent years, often resulting in civilian casualties and property damage.
Just days earlier, two Iraqi border guards were killed in the same region, adding to the escalating tensions. On Sunday, a Peshmerga soldier was injured when a shell landed near his vehicle in Duhok’s Batifa district.
On Jan. 2, 2025, artillery struck the Amedi-Sile Road, damaging water pipelines serving about 20 homes. In December 2024, a roadside bomb exploded near Bamarne in Amedi District, causing no injuries. Two months before that, an explosion in the village of Meristek damaged property but did not harm residents.
A 2024 report by CPT claimed that Turkish and Iranian military operations have killed 425 civilians and wounded 420 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq since 1991, with Turkey responsible for more than 83% of those documented incidents.