ERBIL-Hewler, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government KRG called on the Kurdish Worker’s Party to “withdraw” from Iraq’s Kurdish territory Saturday to prevent civilian deaths amid a campaign of Turkish airstrikes targeting the group.

A statement from the office of Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, “should withdraw its fighters from the Kurdish region so to ensure the civilians of Kurdistan don’t become victim of that fighting and conflict.”

The statement also condemned Turkey for bombing civilians, following reports that civilian homes were damaged in airstrikes in Iraqi Kurdistan. The statement calls on both sides to resume peace talks.

“We condemn the bombing, which led to the martyrdom of the citizens of the Kurdish region, and we call on Turkey to not to repeat the bombing of civilians,” the statement added, and called upon both sides to resume a Kurdish peace process.

Sedar Sitar, an Iraq-based PKK activist, told The Associated Press that Turkish strikes destroyed at least six homes in the town of Zargel early Saturday, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 12.

Turkey launched airstrikes on Kurdish rebel camps in Iraqi Kurdistan last week, its first such strikes since a peace process with the Kurds was launched in 2012. The airstrikes began as the U.S. and Turkey announced the outlines of a deal to help push the Islamic State group back from a strip of territory it controls along the Syrian-Turkish border, replacing it with more-moderate rebels backed by Washington and Ankara.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said Saturday that as many as 28 F-16 jets raided 65 PKK targets in Iraqi Kurdistan, including shelters and ammunition depots on Friday. A day earlier, as many as 80 jets hit more than 100 targets, the agency said.

Anadolu claimed some 260 PKK rebels were killed and 400 were wounded since the start of the raids. The PKK has not reported on its casualties.

On the same issue in a statement, the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region Council of Ministers, strongly condemned the bomb attack on the Kurdistan Region oil pipeline by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, and considered it as an attack on the source of livelihood of the Kurdistan Region people.

“The pipeline, which is used by the Kurdistan Region to export its oil, was bombed on 29 July 2015 in Sirnak province inside the Turkish border. PKK’s armed wing, People’s Protection Force, HPG, the following day officially claimed responsibility for the blast.” the statement said.

“The Government and the people of Kurdistan Region currently pass through severe financial difficulties, due to withholding Kurdistan Region’s budget by the Federal Government of Iraq and the war against the Islamic State terrorist organisation, ISIS.”

The statement added “This oil pipeline constitutes the only principal source enabling the Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, to pay people’s salary and helping the government and people of the Kurdistan Region to resist all the pressures and challenges the Region is currently facing. It is also the main source of funding Peshmerga Forces in the fight against ISIS, as well as the source of KRG assistance to more than 1.8 million refugees and internally displaced persons, who fled to the Kurdistan Region.”

” We strongly condemn this attack by the PKK, and consider it an irresponsible act against the people of the Kurdistan Region, the resistance of the Peshmerga forces and the refugees and displaced persons. We consider that this attack has no other objective, except targeting and undermining Kurdistan Region’s economy and the living source of its citizens. This is a condemnable act by the Kurdistan people and parties. We call on the PKK to stop the recurrence of such hostile acts against the people of Kurdistan Region.” the statement concluded.

Since it was established in 1984 the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state in Turkish Kurdistan region in the southeast of the country.

But now limited its demands to establish an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds, who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 75-million population but have long been denied basic political and cultural rights, its goal to political autonomy. A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, AP | krp.org | Ekurd.net

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