“The victims of the drone attack near Said Sadiq district were two female journalists, not members of an armed force that poses a threat to the security and stability of a country or region,” Talabani said in a Facebook post, contradicting a statement from the Erbil-based Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD), also known as Kurdistan CT, which said the dead were members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Media rights organizations identified the two journalists who were killed as Gulistan Tara and Hero Bahadin from Sterk TV. Rebin Bakir from Chatr Media Company was seriously injured.
“Sterk TV… works within the framework of the Jetr Media Company licensed by the Kurdistan Regional Government,” the Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy and the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate said in a joint statement.
In their statement, they condemned the strike as a “heinous crime” and called on the KRG and the federal government “to exert maximum efforts, whether through diplomatic means or other means available to the two governments, to pressure the Turkish government to prevent such violations committed by the Turkish army against journalists and civilians.”
The Norway-based Sterk TV is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
A security source told Rudaw that the strike occurred near the Tapa Rash village in the Said Sadiq area.
PKK media have blamed Turkey for the attack, saying six people were injured, alongside the two journalists who were killed.
The Turkish defense ministry has yet to comment on the strike.
Ankara has accused the Sulaimani-based Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of having close connections with the PKK. Deputy KRG PM Talabani, who is a leadership member of the PUK, accused Turkey of violating Iraq’s sovereignty.
“The killing of these two journalists is an excusable crime and is against all sorts of laws and international norms. We strongly condemn it. Additionally, it is a stark violation of Iraqi territorial sovereignty,” he said in his statement, calling on Baghdad and the international community to “put a limit on these violations that have become a serious threat to the lives of Kurdistan Region’s civilians.”
Sulaimani Governor Haval Abubakir also condemned the deadly strike, saying violence does not resolve problems. He called on all sides to resort to dialogue.
The Turkey-based pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) also condemned the killing of the two journalists.
“We know very well that targeting a vehicle carrying journalists was a deliberate and organized attack. By targeting female journalists who exposed attacks on the Kurdish people and women in the Federal Kurdistan Region, an attempt was made to cover up war crimes committed in the region,” the party’s women council said in a statement.
Turkey intensified its decades-long war against the PKK this summer and has deployed hundreds of troops to the Kurdistan Region. As part of a security pact with Turkey, the Iraqi government earlier this year banned the PKK.
The Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a human rights organization and conflict monitor tracking Turkish operations in the Kurdistan Region, said in a damning report on August 14 that Turkish forces have killed at least 344 civilians since the 1990s.
