ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A drone struck Makhmour refugee camp on Monday, killing one person and injuring two others, Kurdistan Region counterterrorism officials announced, blaming Turkey.
“At 9:45 am, a Turkish military drone targeted a PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] meeting point in Makhmour Camp, resulting in one death and the injury of two others,” the Erbil-based Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD), also known as Kurdistan CT, said in a statement on Facebook.
A PKK official was among the casualties, according to the statement.
Turkey did not comment specifically on Makhmour; however, also on Monday, four PKK members near Mount Asos - about 50 kilometers north of Sulaimani city - were “neutralized” by Turkish forces, Turkey’s defense ministry said in a post on X.
Ankara uses the term “neutralize” to denote adversaries captured, wounded, or killed.
The PKK has not commented on the incidents. Sulaimani city is approximately 140 kilometers east of Makhmour.
The drone strike on Makhmour camp was the second in less than a week. On Tuesday, a drone hit the camp killing one person and injuring two others.
Makhmour Camp hosts around 10,000 Kurdish refugees from southeast Turkey. The majority of the residents came from villages depopulated during Turkey’s conflict with the PKK.
The camp is in an area disputed between Baghdad and Erbil - creating a security vacuum. Turkish air and drone strikes have hit alleged PKK targets in the area previously with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling it an “incubation center for terrorism” in 2021.
Turkey began intensifying its decades-long war against the PKK, particularly in Duhok province, in mid-June after Erdogan repeatedly said he would launch a new offensive in the summer. Ankara has deployed hundreds of troops to the province.
