Shoes left on the ground, chairs scattered in a stream, dry blood on the ground, this is how the scene looked in the tourist resort in the mountains of the Kurdistan region, after it was subjected to a bloody bombardment attributed by Baghdad to Turkey, as if time had stopped at that moment, according to the description of Agence France-Presse.
In this rural area in the district of Zakho, about 5 kilometers from the border with Turkey, the tragedy occurred when the artillery surprised Iraqi tourists, killing 9 of them and wounding 23.
This tourist resort is located around a stream near the village of Barkh, surrounded by trees and kiosks, welcoming visitors who come here to entertain themselves in nature.
On a plastic table, leftovers of food were left, and in the water table, plastic chairs and chairs were scattered, and there remained a hookah that visitors left behind, as a videographer told AFP, who visited the place as part of a tour organized by the Ministry of Information in the Kurdistan Regional Government.
On the ground, summer shoes were everywhere, bloodstains dried up, and Baghdad accused Turkey of being behind the attack, while “Ankara deniedNo responsibility was pointed at the PKK.
“Every day, about 100 buses visit this place, in addition to those who come with their cars,” said Ali Othman, a 52-year-old shop owner, explaining that “Arab (Iraqi) tourists come here a lot.”
“Our village has about 35 houses, and I think that in the end there will be no place to live, we must leave this village,” he added.
The man was in the place on the day the tragedy occurred, and he says, “At that time we did not know what to do, so some families forgot their children and ran away, and they also left the victims behind.”
A large part of the Iraqi political class condemned what happened, and the matter also sparked popular anger in Iraq, where hundreds demonstrated in various regions of the country, in protests, some of which included burning the Turkish flag.
Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest against the bombing, and also demanded the withdrawal of the Turkish army from its territory. The Iraqi authorities announced the recall of its charge d’affaires from Ankara and “stopping the procedures for sending a new ambassador to Turkey,” according to an official statement.
And earlier, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, condemned the bombing, saying that “the Turkish forces (committed) again a clear and blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty.”
The official Iraqi TV said that Baghdad had filed a complaint with the UN Security Council over the Turkish bombing, according to Al-Hurra correspondent.
A number of angry demonstrators gathered near the Turkish visa office in Najaf province and lowered the Turkish flag, calling for the office to be closed, while other protesters called for a demonstration in the province to protest against the bombing.
The Turkish army constantly carries out cross-border operations and launches air strikes on northern Iraq, which it says are PKK positions.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey and other countries have listed as a terrorist organization for decades, uses the northern mountains of Iraq as a springboard for its operations in the framework of the decades-old insurgency against the Turkish state and its army, according to “Archyde.com”.
And last April, Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish militants in the Matina region in northern Iraq, in which about 5,000 soldiers participated, backed by helicopters, drones, and special forces that carried out landings, according to “Archyde.com”.
The majority of the victims are Iraqi tourists from the center and south of the country, who are fleeing from the heat in their areas, to the mild climate in the mountainous regions of Kurdistan, according to “AFP”.