The United Nations Special Envoy to Iraq said in an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, on Tuesday, that Turkey and Iraq are ready to conduct a joint investigation into the attack that targeted the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, which killed nine Iraqi tourists and wounded 33 others.
Iraq blamed the July 20 attack on Turkey, but Ankara denied responsibility for it.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said that the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, stressed, on Monday, “the importance of conducting a transparent and comprehensive investigation, independent or joint.”
It quoted him as saying that it was necessary to “put an end to speculation, denial, misunderstanding and rising tensions.”
Meanwhile, Hennis-Plasschaert indicated that Turkey is also ready to address the issue jointly with Iraq in order to determine the facts accurately. For its part, the Turkish government, which often carries out military operations across the border in northern Iraq, said it was targeting militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party, which Turkey and the West have designated as a terrorist organization, and which has waged a decades-old insurgency against the Ankara government and controls positions in the mountains of northern Iraq.
Hennis-Plasschaert told the Security Council that the nine tourists killed, including three children.
She added that out of the 33 injured, 11 have undergone surgeries, and three of them are still in critical condition.