[ad_1]
Issued on:
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi declared a day of national mourning Thursday after nine civilians were killed in a strike on a Kurdish hill village he blamed on neighbouring Turkey. Ankara has denied responsibility for the attack.
The coffins of the nine dead, draped in Iraqi national flags and festooned with flowers, were put on board a flight to Baghdad from Kurdish regional capital Arbil by an honour guard led by top officials.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and Kurdish regional president Nechirvan Barzani led the pallbearers carrying the smallest of the coffins, a child’s, onto the military plane, according to reporters.
In Baghdad, the bodies were to be handed over to their families for burial.
The deaths in a village pleasure garden prompted several dozen angry demonstrators to protest outside the Turkish visa office in Baghdad early Thursday, despite a heavy police presence.
Loudspeakers blared out patriotic songs as protesters chanted slogans demanding the expulsion of the Turkish ambassador, an AFP journalist reported.
“We want to burn down the embassy. The ambassador must be expelled,” said demonstrator Ali Yassin, 53. “Our government is doing nothing.”
In an unusually strong rebuke, Iraqi Prime Minister Kadhemi has warned Turkey that Baghdad reserves the “right to retaliate,” calling the artillery fire a “flagrant violation” of sovereignty – a line echoed by Iraq’s Kurdish administration.
Iraq said it was recalling its charge d’affaires from Ankara and summoning Turkey’s ambassador, and demanded an official apology from Turkey along with “the withdrawal of its armed forces from all Iraqi territory”.
Turkey has however rejected the claim that it was responsible for the deadly strike in northern Iraq.
Turkey regularly carries out air strikes in northern Iraq and has sent…
[ad_2]
Source : france24
