BAGHDAD: Iraq rejects repeated Turkish air strikes or the presence of Turkish bases in its Kurdistan region and hopes to come to an agreement with Ankara to solve this problem, Iraqi President Abdul-Latif Rashid said in comments aired on Monday.

Turkey said on Sunday it carried out air strikes in northern Iraq that destroyed 20 targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after the outlawed group said it orchestrated the first bomb attack in Ankara in years.

On Sunday morning, two attackers detonated a bomb near government buildings in Ankara, killing both and wounding two police officers. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.

The blast rattled a district that is home to ministries and the parliament, in an attack coinciding with the reopening of the Turkish assembly.

Turkiye regards the PKK as a terrorist group and regularly carries out air strikes in northern Iraq, which has long been outside the direct control of the Baghdad government.

Turkiye has also has sent commandos and set up military bases on Iraqi territory to support its offensives.

“These violations are rejected by the Iraqi people, the (Kurdistan) region and all of Iraq’s inhabitants,” President Rashid said in an interview with Saudi state-owned broadcaster Al Hadath, a short clip of which was aired on Monday.

Rashid said such strikes sometimes killed civilians, including people visiting the region who “become victims of Turkish bombing”.

The Iraqi president said Baghdad hoped to come to an agreement with Ankara to resolve the issue in a manner similar to a security agreement Iraq has inked with Iran to deal with Iranian Kurdish separatist groups in the Kurdistan region.

Turkiye denies targeting civilians and says it works to avoid civilian casualties through its coordination with Iraqi authorities.

Abdul-Latif Rashid is a member of the Iraqi Kurdish PUK party, which has close ties to Iran and has criticised Turkiye’s strikes in Iraq’s north. The post of president is largely ceremonial in Iraq.

Police raids

Counterterrorism poli­­ce detained 20 people in raids targeting PKK-linked suspects in Istanbul and elsewhere, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Monday.

A provincial Kurdish spokesman and district heads of a large pro-Kurdish political party were among those detained, suspected of collecting aid and providing shelter for PKK members, Yerlikaya said on X.

The ANF News website, which is close to the PKK, cited the militant group as saying in a statement on Sunday that a team from its Immortals Battalion unit had carried out the attack.

The bomb on Ataturk Boulevard was the first in Ankara since 2016, when there was a spate of attacks in Turkish cities claimed by Kurdish militants, Islamic State and other groups.

The Turkish armed forces have in recent years conducted several military operations in northern Iraq and northern Syria against Kurdish militants.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2023