Led by the head of the Iraqi border guard brigade Lt. Gen. Hamid Abdullah, the delegation consists of other Iraqi military commanders, as well as intelligence service officials, an Iraqi military official told Rudaw. Delegation members are visiting the sites of the Turkish airstrikes, and plan to meet with Duhok province officials including its governor.
“Today we visited the Beresveman area on the Zakho border,” Border Guard commander Dler Zebari told Rudaw on Monday.
“We will meet with the governor and other officials of Duhok province today [Monday],” Zebari said.
The delegation, which is working in coordination with the Kurdistan Region's interior ministry, is to provide Iraqi premier Mustafa al-Kadhimi with a report detailing its findings.
The Kurdistan Region's border areas have come under fire from both Turkish and Iranian strikes over the past week, as part of a military offensive with the stated aim of targeting suspected Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in the region. Turkey's Operation Claw-Eagle aerial assault began on June 15, while an accompanying ground campaign, Operation Claw-Tiger, began on June 17.
Five locals are confirmed to have been killed by the Turkish airstrikes, including four civilians in Duhok province and one shepherd in Erbil province's Sidakan region, bordering Iran.
Details of “all the losses and impact of the Turkish operation's bombings on locals will be handed over to the delegation,” Botan Muhsin, Mayor of Zakho in northern Duhok province told Rudaw on Monday.
Turkish ambassador to Iraq Fatih Yildiz was summoned twice by Iraq's foreign ministry to answer for Turkey's air and ground campaigns since their beginning. It is hoped the investigation's findings will compel Iraq to act further to end Turkey's operations, Muhsin said.
Currently based in the Qandil Mountains along the Turkey-Kurdistan Region-Iran border, the PKK is an armed group that has fought a decades-long battle with Ankara for greater political rights for Kurds in Turkey. Ankara regularly carries out airstrikes and ground operations against suspected PKK positions inside the Kurdistan Region.
At least eight villages near Zakho have been emptied of their residents due to the Turkish operation, local officials told Rudaw on Thursday.
