RSF condemns drone strike in Iraqi Kurdistan that killed two media workers, wounded third
A drone strike on a vehicle in Iraqi Kurdistan on 23 August killed two Kurdish media workers working for a local TV channel and wounded their colleague, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calling for full light to be shed on this shocking crime against media personnel.
The drone attack came just a day and a half after RSF sounded the alarm about a surge in violence against journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northeastern Iraq. Hero Bahaden and Gülistan Tara were killed and Rebin Baker was injured in the attack on 23 August in Sulaymaniyah district, All three worked for Sterk TV, which is affiliated to the Kurdish media production company CHATR, according to the information obtained by RSF.
Witnesses said their car was hit by fire from a drone in Said Sadiq, a town in Sulaymaniyah district. Several local sources said the drone was operated by the Turkish armed forces, which since June have stepped up military operations in northern Kurdistan against members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), regarded as terrorist organisation by the Turkish government. The Turkish defence ministry in Ankara nonetheless told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the origin of the drone attack was “not the Turkish armed forces.”
Aged 27, Bahaden had been employed at CHATR since 2020, according to her Facebook page. Tara, 40, had been a professional journalist since 2000, working with many media outlets, most recently CHATR, according to local media outlet Roj News. Their deaths follow that of Murad Mirza Ibrahim, a 27-year-old journalist killed by a drone strike on 8 July.
“With three media workers killed in less than two months, the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan is becoming one of the world’s most dangerous places for reporters. We condemn the drone strike that killed Hero Bahaden and Gülistan Tara and we call on the Kurdish authorities to shed full light on this crime that took place on their territory. The Turkish authorities must be held to account. The Turkish defence ministry’s denial is insufficient. Kurdish journalists must be safe and justice must be rendered to Bahaden and Tara.”
The killing of the two journalists was denounced by Karouan Anwar, the head of the Sulaymaniyah section of the journalists’ union, while CHATR director Kamal Hama Ridha denied a claim by the Erbil-based regional government’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) that a Turkish drone had attacked a vehicle belonging to PKK fighters. Ridha issued a statement saying: “Some media outlets have spread false information that the people targeted were PKK fighters. They are journalists and have nothing to do with politics.” Contradicting the CTD claim, regional government Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani said: “The victims of the aerial bombardment in Said Sadiq district were two journalists and were not members of any armed force. They did not pose any threat to the security and stability of any country.”
The Turkish armed forces have for decades been fighting a war against the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the Turkish authorities. The drone strike on 23 August came just hours after an attack by Turkish warplanes in Sulaymaniyah province, RSF has learned.
