Eight rockets fired at Turkish base in Iraq – Kurdish security group

ERBIL, Iraq, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Unidentified attackers fired eight rockets at a Turkish military base in northern Iraq on Wednesday, two of which landed inside the facility, said the Counter-Terrorism Group, a security organisation in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

An Iraqi contractor in the base was wounded, said an Iraqi security source who declined to be identified.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the early hours on the Zilkan base, which hosts Turkish troops in Ninevah province of northern Iraq.

Turkey has been carrying out operations in Iraq for decades against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has bases in the region. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union. read more

The group launched an insurgency in southeast Turkey in 1984 in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

Reporting by Ali Sultan, Jamal al-Badrani in Mosul, Nadine Awadalla in Dubai, writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Robert Birsel

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