Turkish warplanes target PMU hospital in northern Iraq: Security source

Turkish warplanes have reportedly bombarded a military hospital belonging to forces of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) — or Hashd al-Sha’abi — resistance group in Iraq’s northern Nineveh Province.

Iraq’s Mawazin News cited an unnamed security source as saying on Tuesday that the hospital is located in the village of al-Sakina, south of Mount Sinjar.

“The [Turkish] warplanes target everyone who tries to evacuate the wounded from the hospital,” the source said, adding that initial reports confirmed some people had been killed and injured during the air raid.

According to Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with the PMU, the Turkish warplanes targeted all vehicles trying to approach the hospital.

No further details were reported.

The PMU, which is the largest coalition of Iraqi resistance groups, has played a key role in Iraq’s 2017 victory against the Daesh terrorist group.

Since the defeat of Daesh, however, the anti-terror group has been targeted repeatedly by the US military, prompting Iraqi resistance groups to step up efforts to push the US out of their country over its destabilizing activities.

The PMU has also played a significant role in protecting Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity against hostile and occupying forces.

Turkey has been militarily engaged in northern Iraq with the purported aim of fighting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, which it has designated as a terrorist outlet, along with the United States and the European Union.

The Baghdad government has condemned Ankara’s ongoing military operations in northern Iraq, warning of the Turkish government's expansionist agenda and its ambitions to seize control of and annex the strategic northwestern city of Mosul.

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‘Turkish incursion to enable more intervention in Iraq’

Earlier, Iraqi lawmaker Abdul-Khaleq al-Azzawi said that the Turkish incursion into northern Iraq could be a gateway to regional interventions in the country's affairs.

“The Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, whatever the motive, remains a source of concern and is deemed an unacceptable interference affecting national sovereignty,” al-Azzawi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, said in a statement on Saturday.

He said given the challenges Iraq is faced with, it needs to make use of international diplomacy to pressure Turkey to stop its raids on Iraqi soil.

“Unless the government and the Foreign Ministry act firmly to stop foreign interference, the country could face serious repercussions for everything, including the security situation,” he added.

The Iraqi lawmaker enumerated the Baghdad government's weak approach as well as domestic conflicts as factors encouraging the Turkish incursion.

Earlier this month, the spokesman of Iraq’s al-Nujaba Movement, which is part of the PMU, said there is no difference between Turkish and American occupation forces when it comes to protecting the Arab country’s territorial integrity.

“We in the Islamic resistance do not look at Turkey with the same view that we look at the United States except on the issue of the occupation of Iraq’s territory,” Nasr Al-Shammari said in a tweet on August 10.

“The wise should learn from the experiences of others,” Al-Shammari said, hinting at the US failures in Iraq.

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