Iraq calls on Turkey to ‘apologize’ for shelling Sulaymaniyah airport

Iraq called on Turkey on Saturday to apologize for what it said was the shelling of Sulaymaniyah airport in Iraq’s north, saying the Turkish government must cease hostilities on Iraqi soil.

The Iraqi presidency said in a statement that Turkey has no legal justification to “continue its approach of intimidating civilians under the pretext that forces hostile to it are present on Iraqi soil.”

A drone attack hit the vicinity of Sulaymaniyah airport on Friday but caused no damage or delays or suspension of flights, Lawk Ghafuri, head of foreign media affairs for the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), wrote in a Twitter post late on Friday.

The attack came a few days after Turkey closed its airspace to aircraft travelling to and from Sulaymaniyah due to what it said was intensified activity there by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.