A family video shows the moment that a Turkish airstrike attacked a village in Kurdistan June 25, according to France 24.
Is this okay with you? @masrour_barzani @qubadjt @jensstoltenberg this is my brother playing with my nephew when a Turkish bomb drops 20 meters away from them in Kuna Masi. #TwitterKurds pic.twitter.com/tNUK8HeWt0
— Jîl Şwanî (@thejilswani) June 25, 2020
The missile strike allegedly occurred June 25 and targeted a car near a shop in Kuna Masi, a popular tourist village in the Kurdish province of Sulaymaniyah, per France 24. The video shows two toddlers and a family playing in a river near where the air strike took place. (RELATED: Oklahoma Man Shoots Woman For Trying To Steal His Nazi Flag)
“A few seconds before the impact, we heard the shrill sound of a missile,” Zharo Baxtiar, the man in the black shirt in the video, told France 24. “At the moment of impact, it was as if it was raining rocks and pieces of glass. The hill was on fire and there was a lot of smoke.” The Twitter video has since reached 1.4 million views.
PJAK (the Kurdistan Free Life Party) said that one of its fighters was allegedly killed during the attack and three others were injured, according to France 24. PJAK said the fighters were returning from a mission and were targeted by “Turkish state’s fighter jets and reconnaissance aircraft.”
A local mayor said that six civilians were allegedly injured in the attack, per France 24.
“In the name of the hunting down members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) they [the Turkish government] targeted civilians in the Kuna Masi resort,” said spokesperson for the ministry of the armed forces of Iraqi Kurdistan Babakir Faqe, reported France 24. The Turkish government reportedly responded and said that the accusation was unfounded.
“My family and I are safe and sound but we are traumatized,” said Baxtiar. “The sound of the explosion was so intense that whenever we hear a loud sound, we’re immediately transported back into the middle of the chaos. Our son keeps talking to us about it.”
USCIRF condemned #Turkey’s latest round of air strikes and ground operations (“Operation Claw-Eagle” and “Operation Claw-Tiger”) near civilian areas in northern #Iraq, calling on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to order an immediate end to these actions. https://t.co/p8Z3PPphT2
— USCIRF (@USCIRF) June 19, 2020
The PKK is the military and political organization based in Turkey and Iraq occupied by Kurdistan, and has been fighting for control over the region since 1984. Turkey began operations against the PKK June 17 utilizing ground troops, warplanes, attack helicopters, artillery and armed and unarmed drones, according to NBC News.