KRG, PKK exchange blame for clashes at Duhok checkpoint

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) interior ministry on Wednesday said that the checkpoint of one of its Peshmerga units in Duhok province came under an attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The armed group blamed the Peshmerga for injuring a number of its fighters.

According to a statement by the KRG Ministry of Interior, a checkpoint manned by the Peshmerga forces’ Zeravani units in Duhok province’s Amedi district came under rocket attack by the PKK.

The statement came several hours after PKK-affiliated media had said that several fighters had been injured in an ambush attack by “the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).”

The KRG added that the media report was false, adding that no casualties were inflicted on either side.

“The PKK fighters, while tens of kilometres away from the Turkish border in the Amedi area, violated the checkpoint of the Zeravani forces and then they attacked the same checkpoint with rockets,” the KRG statement said. It said their forces responded to the attack in self-defence.

The Zeravani Peshmerga is a militarized police force which officially comes under the command of the Ministry of Interior. The force has fought alongside the Peshmerga in its fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).

The interior ministry accused the PKK “of being part of the regional conspiracy against the KRG’s entity.”

On Wednesday night, a local source told Rudaw that two PKK vehicles came under the attack of Turkish warplanes in Spindar village in Amedi. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties. Airstrikes had also taken place earlier in the day in the same area.

Source » rudaw.net