A Turkish diplomat was shot and killed in a restaurant in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the Turkish Foreign Ministry and media said on Wednesday, July 17.
At least one member of the Turkish Consulate General in Erbil was killed, around 2:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) at the HuQQabaz restaurant in the Empire City neighborhood of Erbil, the news website Rudaw reported, saying the area was on lockdown.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed an “officer of the Consulate General of Erbil” was killed in an armed attack, but gave no other identifying information. The victims are thought to include the deputy consul general from the Erbil mission but Turkey has not confirmed those reports.
A citizen from the Kurdistan Region was killed and another wounded, the Kurdistan Regional Government said, also confirming a diplomat’s death.
Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported only that a diplomat had been killed, and said the restaurant owner indicated the consular staff had been targeted.
No group has said it was behind the shooting. Erbil has been relatively insulated from violence that has plagued the region in recent years, including attacks by Islamic State and clashes between Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey that has at times spilled over into the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
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