An explosion rocked the neighborhood of Sulaymaniyah airport in Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)-controlled area on Friday.
The reported blast comes amid tensions with close by Türkiye after Ankara on Wednesday closed its airspace to flights from town, blaming elevated PKK terrorist exercise within the space.
Shortly after 4:00 p.m. (1300 GMT) “an explosion took place near the wall of Sulaimaniyah airport without causing any injury, but led to a fire which was brought under control by civil defence units,” an announcement from the airport safety companies mentioned.
It added that air visitors had not been disrupted.
Local officers together with the deputy premier of the Kurdistan area, Qubad Talabani, spoke of an “attack,” with out elaborating.
An announcement from Sulaymaniyah province governor Haval Abu Bakr mentioned the explosion was the results of “aerial bombardment” near the airport.
He referred to as on “all political parties to put an end to their disputes” and never flip the KRG-controlled area right into a “battlefield for sort out their conflicting interests.”
Türkiye on Wednesday mentioned the freeze on air hyperlinks with Sulaymaniyah would final till no less than July 3 earlier than being reviewed.
“This decision was taken within the framework of the intensification of PKK terrorist activities in Sulaymaniyah, the penetration of the terrorist group into the airport and thus posing a threat to safety of flights,” mentioned the Foreign Ministry.
Türkiye has lengthy been stressing that it’ll not tolerate terrorist threats in opposition to nationwide safety and referred to as on Iraqi officers to take the mandatory steps to get rid of the PKK terrorist group.
Ankara beforehand famous that it will not keep away from concentrating on terrorist threats if the anticipated steps weren’t taken. However, within the final two years, intensifying operations in northern Iraq have demolished terrorist lairs in Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara. After eradicating the group’s affect in these areas, Türkiye additionally goals to clear Qandil, Sinjar and Makhmour.
The Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq are the PKK’s stronghold, and the group is energetic in lots of close by cities and cities. In addition, it occupies many villages within the area from the place it launches assaults on Türkiye.
The announcement on Wednesday got here greater than every week after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomed Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Ankara, the place he referred to as on the Iraqi folks to acknowledge the PKK as a terrorist group.
For his half, al-Sudani burdened that Iraq wouldn’t permit any terror group to make use of its territory for assaults on Türkiye.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
