The counterterrorism force said on Facebook that at around 10:50 am local time a Turkish drone targeted a car near Kani Kand village in Koya district, killing one and injuring another.
Rojnews, a media outlet affiliated with the PKK, reported on Tuesday that Turkish drones attacked a car in Koya, noting that the passengers of the car were civilians and were all members of one family.
Sherwan Jalal, deputy head of Koya health directorate told Rudaw that there were four people in the car, a man and three women, adding that the man was killed and the women were slightly injured. He cited the women as saying that they were on their way back to Makhmour from Ranya.
The Turkish defense ministry has not commented on the attack yet.
Kurdistan CT is unofficially linked to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) - which has had rocky relations with the PKK for decades. There have been clashes between KDP-affiliated Peshmerga forces and PKK fighters in bordering areas in recent years over land control.
The PKK is an armed group that for decades has fought for the rights of Kurds in Turkey. It is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, which has launched numerous operations against the group and its alleged offshoots in the Kurdistan Region and Syria.
Turkey has intensified its attack on alleged PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region over the past two weeks, following an attack in front of the Turkish interior ministry’s general security directorate in Ankara. The group’s military wing, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Saturday, the Turkish defense ministry stated its armed forces “neutralized” six PKK members in the Operation Claw-Lock area. Kurdistan CT later confirmed the reports.
Turkey uses the term “neutralized” to denote adversaries captured, wounded, or killed.
Since 2019, Turkey has carried out several operations against the PKK in Kurdistan Region’s northern Duhok province. Operation Claw was launched in 2019 in Khakurk. This was followed by Claw-Tiger in June 2020. The third offensive was a ground and air cross-border operation, dubbed Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt, launched in April 2021.
Turkey sent its army back into the Kurdistan Region in April of last year, launching Operation Claw-Lock with the goal of targeting PKK positions in Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan areas in northern Duhok province to remove the group from the border areas and cut off its access to mainland Turkey.