Who Benefits from the Bombing of Iraq and the Indictment of Turkiye?

The crisis between Baghdad and Ankara is escalating due to the shelling of a refinery in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which the Iraqi authorities accused Turkiye of being behind, but the latter denied this and confirmed that the PKK targeted Iraqi tourists in that area.

Nine people were killed and 31 injured in the attack on the Resort of Bark in the Turkish border town of Dohuk, mostly from central and southern Iraq, for the Eid al-Adha holiday, Iraqi media reported.

 

Conflicting Accounts

In light of the attacks, a diplomatic dispute broke out between Iraq and Turkiye, with Iraqi television stating that "heavy artillery shelling" hit a resort in the town of Zakho, on the border with Turkiye, and that all the dead were tourists.

Iraqi authorities have accused Turkiye of carrying out the bombing, which it saw as a "clear and flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty."

On July 20, the Iraqi government decided to summon the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad to protest the attack "for the purpose of consultation."

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi condemned on Twitter that "The Turkish force has committed an explicit and blatant violation of the sovereignty of Iraq and the lives and security of Iraqi citizens by targeting a tourist Resort in the governorate of the Duhok in the Kurdistan region of Iraq today, Wednesday, through the use of artillery.

"Iraq reserves its full right to respond to these attacks and will take all necessary measures to protect its people and hold the aggressors accountable for the ongoing escalation," he said.

Turkiye has denied responsibility for the attack, blaming PKK militants as terrorists, and carrying out security operations against it in northern Iraq for years in coordination with the governments of Baghdad and Erbil.

In a statement on July 20, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said it called on the Government of Iraq to cooperate in "bringing the real perpetrators of this tragic incident into light."

"Turkiye is against all kinds of attacks targeting civilians…Turkiye is ready to take all steps to reveal the truth," it said.

It also extended the deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the friendly and brotherly Iraqi people, and the Iraqi government and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

Ankara "carries out its fight against terrorism in accordance with international law, with utmost sensitivity to the protection of civilians, civilian infrastructure, historical and cultural property, and the environment," the ministry said.

It also called on Iraqi government officials "not to make statements under the influence of the rhetoric and propaganda of the treacherous terrorist organization."

On July 20, hundreds staged a protest in Baghdad near a Turkish embassy building, demanding a cut-off of ties and a boycott of Turkish goods.

"All indications confirm Turkiye's responsibility for the attack and its denial of a black joke," the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

 

International Complaint

In light of this, the Iraqi authorities announced a series of measures after Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein ruled out military escalation with Turkiye in the wake of the bombing of Dohuk province, while the Iraqi parliament decided during a session hosted by ministers and military leaders on July 23 to form a joint commission of inquiry on the ground on the bombing.

"The ministers of defense and foreign affairs, the chief of staff of the army, and the commander of joint operations confirmed that two steps have been taken: one towards legal action through international complaints, and the other step is the absence of Turkish forces in Iraq, and if there remains, there will be another response," Mehdi Amrly, a member of the parliamentary security and defense committee, was quoted by the official Iraqi channel as saying on July 23.

"A committee of parliamentary security, defense, and foreign relations has been formed with the army chief of staff, the Ministry of Defense, and joint operations, to investigate the incident site on the ground and find out the source of the bombs," Amrly said.

On July 23, the Iraqi government announced a complaint to the UN Security Council about the "Turkish attack."

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is filing a complaint with the UN Security Council and is requesting an emergency session on the Turkish attack, which resulted in several safe civilians between a martyr and a wounded person in Dohuk," said the statement.

This complaint is the first of its kind to be submitted by Iraq to the UN Security Council in more than two decades, against the backdrop of the claimed Turkish shelling of Iraqi territory.

"The problems between Iraq and any neighboring country should not be resolved militarily…They [Turkiye] must find another way, and we are ready to meet with [them]," Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said as he attended the parliamentary session.

"There are five large Turkish military bases in Iraqi territory and 4,000 Turkish soldiers inside the Territory of the Kurdistan Region, deployed at 100 military points in Iraqi territory," said Abdul Amir Yarallah, chief of staff of the Iraqi army, said.

 

'Mixing Papers'

As for the beneficiaries of the tension between Baghdad and Ankara and the reasons for the latter's insistence on rejecting accusations about the bombing, Iraqi political researcher Latif al-Mahdawi told Al-Estiklal that "the bombing came at a sensitive stage in Iraq, especially at the political level."

"The bombing took place at a time when serious audio leaks of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attacked Sadrist leader Moqtada al-Sadr and threatened to attack Najaf and resort to Shiite-Shiite fighting to end Sadr's control," al-Mahdawi said.

"Many have argued that Turkiye's insistence on refusing its accusation of the bombing—although it can admit and apologize for it if it were the actual perpetrator—indicates that there is a beneficiary party behind the attack, sticking the charge against Turkiye and pitting Iraqi public opinion against it," the researcher said.

"The beneficiary party may be the Iranian axis supporting Maliki to cover up the audio leaks because Iran is accused of supporting the PKK in Iraq's Sinjar and integrating it into the Popular Mobilization to contradict Turkiye politically and militarily, so the workers may already be involved in the attack," he said.

"The attack also took place after a summit in which Turkiye participated in Iran with Russia, in which Tehran rejected any Turkish operation in Syria and warned that it would affect the region, after which Turkiye replies that it does not ask anyone for permission in its military operations," al-Mahdawi said.

Turkish academic and political researcher Muhannad Hafizoglu told al-Hurra television on July 21 that Ankara's positions confirm that it is "ready for all steps to find out who is the real perpetrator, although it believes that terrorist elements have carried it out.

"The context in which this incident comes from and the internal situation in Iraq suggests that those who carried out the operation are Iran with the arms of the Popular Mobilization because the papers inside Iraq are scattered and complex," the researcher added.

Hafizoglu said he believed that after the Tehran summit ended, "there seems to be Iranian resentment against any Turkish action in northern Syria," noting that "Tehran wanted to divert the attention of the region and the international community and distract the Turkish interior from the operation in northern Syria."

The Turkish researcher described what happened (the bombing of Dohuk) as "a movement to mix the papers inside Iraq, and in order to confuse the Turkish political decision regarding the Turkish operation in northern Syria."

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a July 21 television interview, before launching a military operation in Syria, that Turkiye never requests permission for military operations against terrorism from anyone.