Iraqi Kurds accuse PKK of killing 3

The Interior Ministry of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region said yesterday members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had kidnapped three Iraqi citizens, Agence France-Presse reported.

One of the kidnapped, who was found dead, was alleged by one source to be working for Turkish intelligence.The region’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that on Dec. 29, 2011, PKK members detained three Iraqi citizens – Mussa Yunis Abdullah, Sami Mohammed Taher and Mohammed Shahwan – in the Zakho area of Dohuk province. Their fate was unknown until Jan. 27, when the latter two were released. However, Abdullah’s body was found two days later.

Kurdish newspaper Hawlati claimed Feb. 12 that Abdullah was “a spy for Turkish intelligence” who worked to obtain information from the intelligence service of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Hawlati claimed Abdullah gave Turkey images of the Uludere area, which was the scene of a botched air raid on Dec. 29, that killed 35 civilians. Turkish intelligence sources neither confirmed nor denied the claim.