IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A cluster of rockets focused a Turkish navy base in northern Iraq on Wednesday, officers from northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish area mentioned. An Iranian-backed militia promptly claimed duty for the assault.
A Turkish protection ministry official mentioned there was no harm or damage on the base however didn’t present additional particulars. The official spoke on situation of anonymity in step with laws.
In line with a press release from the Iraqi Kurdish area’s anti-terrorism division, no less than eight rockets had been fired at Turkey’s Zilkan navy base in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, with two hitting the bottom itself.
Turkish Protection Minister Hulusi Akar dismissed the incident, saying the bottom comes below assault “sometimes,” prompting retaliatory hearth. He mentioned the Turkish troopers had been “preventing there with elevated resolve and dedication.”
Turkey has been conducting navy operations in northern Iraq since 2019, with each floor and air forces, to battle the banned Kurdistan Employees’ Occasion, or PKK, which has been waging a decadeslong insurgency in opposition to Ankara.
The PKK maintains coaching bases and sanctuaries within the Kurdish Iraqi area. Turkish troops have often launched airstrikes concentrating on the PKK.
Turkish navy involvement in northern Iraq dates again greater than 20 years, and individually from its operations in opposition to the PKK, included additionally the battle in opposition to the Islamic State group, which managed a lot of the world, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally within the U.S.-led anti-IS marketing campaign.
Turkey has additionally arrange a number of bases within the space — a lot to the displeasure of Baghdad officers and a few within the regional Iraqi Kurdish authorities, which has not formally condemned the Turkish troop presence. The amenities have sometimes been focused in rocket assaults.
Turkey arrange Zilkan base in 2015, in the course of the battle in opposition to IS. It’s situated near the Iraqi metropolis of Mosul, on the time a stronghold of the extremists.
The Iraqi authorities has often condemned Turkey’s navy presence, usually describing it as unlawful.
Shortly after Wednesday’s assault, the Islamic Resistance Ahrar al-Iraq Brigade — which is a part of Iraq’s pro-government, Iran-backed umbrella group of Shiite militias known as the Fashionable Mobilization Forces — mentioned it was behind the rocket hearth.