Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Operates Helicopter Carrying PKK Terrorists in Iraq

As the mystery continues over a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of members of the terrorist group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq issued a new statement regarding the incident last week. Local media quoted the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government as saying the helicopter was bought by a group within the PUK political party.

The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, indicated that the helicopter crashed in the Dohuk region during the Nowruz celebrations on Saturday. “Actually, the helicopter was purchased by a group within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, but we don’t know how it got into the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces (PKK/YPG),” Barzani said, adding that there was no other information yet about it. A second helicopter is in the area, which the media speculated might be there.

The Syrian Democratic Forces is the name used by the terrorist group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Syria. In its more than 35-year campaign of terror against Turkey, the PKK – which has been listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

“We will work with the international coalition and the Iraqi federal government to further investigate this incident and find out why these helicopters were flying without permission in these areas. There is a lot to explain,” he stressed.

After the incident, the United States denied providing helicopter pilot training to its PKK-linked partners in Syria.

The KRG Counter-Terrorism Unit issued a statement on Facebook in response to the incident. She added that the concerned institutions alerted the Iraqi central government, the international coalition forces and Turkey to the crash of the helicopter, “although it was later revealed that it did not belong to them.” Security forces have launched a preliminary investigation regarding the helicopter. The statement added that the initial results indicate that it was a Eurocopter AS350 and that some of the dead in the accident were terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers Party, while a thorough investigation is underway to find out who owns the helicopter.

The Turkish Ministry of National Defense said, in a statement issued today, Thursday, that the allegations made on various social media sites, alleging that a helicopter belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces crashed in northern Iraq, do not reflect the truth. On Friday, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said at an event that PKK supporters were “caught red-handed again” by handing over a helicopter to terrorists. “They should know that these (support) efforts are futile. Our war against terrorism will continue until the last remaining terrorist is neutralised,” Akar stressed.

The KRG’s counter-terrorism unit said in a social media post that the helicopter was flying between northern Syria and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq when it crashed. The Anadolu Agency reported that the crashed helicopter was designed and manufactured in France, and the French Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the incident.