DOHUK, Iraq: A mysterious helicopter crash in northern Iraq has killed a minimum of 5 individuals, allegedly together with militants belonging to an outlawed Kurdish insurgency group, in response to statements Thursday from the Iraqi Kurdish-run counterterrorism company and the area’s president.
The AS350 Eurocopter crashed within the district of Chamanke in Dohuk province in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area on Wednesday evening, the counter-terrorism company stated in an announcement posted on social media.
No less than 5 passengers have been killed, stated Lawk Ghafuri, spokesperson for the Kurdish area’s President Nechirvan Barzani.
“The investigations are ongoing by safety officers to find out the possession of the helicopter,” Ghafuri stated in a put up on Twitter.
No less than seven have been on board, in response to an investigator on the crash scene talking on situation of anonymity to debate the investigation with the media.
The helicopter was carrying militants belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Employee’s Celebration, or PKK, the counter-terrorism assertion stated. No social gathering has of but claimed possession of the chopper.
Iraq’s authorities, the U.S-led coalition and Turkiye had been contacted by the Iraqi Kurdish regional authorities in regards to the crash, however every denied the helicopter was theirs, the assertion added.
Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesperson, stated the group doesn’t possess helicopters and so they have been additionally investigating the incident. He additionally forged doubt on the presence of PKK militants onboard the flight, saying they could have a coalition helicopter carrying fighters with the Individuals’s Safety Items, or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish group allied with the US-led forces.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition declined to remark, saying the crash fell outdoors the scope of the coalition’s operations.
Turkish protection ministry officers stated that preliminary studies that the helicopter had been Turkish have been “fully unfaithful” and that there was no helicopter flight belonging to the Turkish army within the area.
The PKK has been waging an insurgency in opposition to Turkiye because the Nineteen Eighties and is taken into account a terrorist group by Ankara, the USA and the European Union. Its militants have established secure havens in northern Iraq and regularly come below assault by Turkiye within the area.