Five people were killed and one injured near the town of Chamchamal in the governorate of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) on Saturday, in an air strike reported to have been conducted by Turkey.

Two of the fatalities were identified as Aram Haji, the local administrator of the village of Tuteqel, and his son-in-law Ismail Ibrahim.

The air strike was conducted around the same time as a Turkish drone targeted a civilian vehicle in Makhmour refugee camp in the KRI, killing one.

Chamchamal, a town of 65,000, is an hour west of the city of Sulaymaniyah, and a 30 minute drive east from Kirkuk.

Makhmour refugee camp, frequently targeted in Turkish air strikes, is 60km southwest of the KRI’s capital Erbil (Hewler), and houses around 12,000 Kurdish refugees who fled attacks and forced evacuations by the Turkish army in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority provinces during the 1990s.

Turkish attacks on Makhmour, some 180km from the Turkish border, and Chamchamal, still further from the border, demonstrate that Turkey’s objectives in its latest incurison into the KRI are not limited to cross-border operations as has been suggested by the Turkish authorities.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two major political parties in the KRI, released a statement condemning the drone strike:

“We call on the Iraqi government to fulfil its constitutional and national obligation to protect Iraqi soil and air space, including the KRI. The Iraqi government should approach the Turkish government about these violations through diplomatic channels. The KRI administration should summon Turkey’s ambassador and communicate to him its discontent with these attacks. There can be no excuse for border violations of this nature, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.”