BAGHDAD: The Iraqi military said it downed a Turkish drone over the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, as Ankara kept up its operations against Kurdish militants inside Iraq.
Falling debris damaged a house in the city center, police and army officials told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
There were no reports of any direct casualties but the police official said a carpenter working on a nearby building site had been admitted to hospital after a fall.
“A Turkish drone which penetrated Iraqi airspace has been shot down,” the deputy air defense commander for Kirkuk, General Abdel Salam Ramadan, told a press conference at the site of the downing.
The aircraft had come “from the direction of Sulaimaniyah,” second city of the Kurdish autonomous region to the north, Ramadan said.
Ethnically mixed Kirkuk and its surrounding oil fields do not form part of the autonomous region but are directly administered by the federal government in Baghdad.
Turkiye has maintained dozens of military bases in northern Iraq for the past quarter of a century as part of its campaign against militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Its troops routinely carry out operations against PKK targets but it comments on them only sporadically.
The Iraqi federal government discreetly outlawed the PKK as a “banned organization” in March and earlier this month agreed a military cooperation deal with Ankara that will see joint training and command centers set up in the fight against the militants.
The leftist group, which has waged a deadly on-off insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is blacklisted as a “terrorist organization” by Ankara and its Western allies.
Iraq army says downed Turkish drone over northern city
https://arab.news/c52dy
Iraq army says downed Turkish drone over northern city
- Initial investigation of the debris showed it was a Turkish military armed drone
- The drone fell in the center of Kirkuk, igniting a fire near some houses, but caused no casualties
Syrian government, Kurdish forces announce integration deal
- Under the agreement, forces that had amassed on front lines in the country’s north would pull back
- Security forces will deploy to the centers of the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli in the northeast
DAMASCUS: The Syrian government and the Kurdish-led group the Syrian Democratic Forces said on Friday they had agreed to a comprehensive ceasefire and a phased integration of military and administrative bodies into the Syrian state under a broad deal.
Under the agreement, forces that had amassed on front lines in the country’s north would pull back and Interior Ministry security forces will deploy to the centers of the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli in the northeast, both currently held by the SDF. Local security forces will be merged.
The sides announced the deal after Syrian government forces under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa captured swathes of northern and eastern Syria from the SDF this month, forcing the Kurdish forces to retreat into a shrinking enclave.
The agreement includes the formation of a military division that will include three SDF brigades, in addition to the formation of a brigade for forces in the SDF-held town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab, which will be affiliated to the governorate of Aleppo.
“The agreement aims to unify Syrian territory and achieve full integration in the region by strengthening cooperation between the concerned parties and unifying efforts to rebuild the country,” according to the deal as announced by the SDF.
A senior Syrian government official told Reuters the deal was final and had been reached late on Thursday night, and that implementation was to begin immediately.
