Turkish envoy killed in Iraq by gunmen in restaurant attackUnidentified assailants entered a restaurant in Erbil, capital of the Kurdish region in Iraq, and opened fire.
5 minutes ago
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack [AP]
A Turkish diplomat was killed after two gunmen entered an upscale restaurant where he was dining and opened fire in Erbil, capital of the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq.
At least three people were shot and two were killed in Wednesday's attack, including an employee of the Turkish consulate, intelligence sources told Al Jazeera.
The gumen escaped the restaurant through the back door and security forces were searching for them.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Baghdad, said the assault took place in the neighbourhood of Ankawa in Erbil.
"They were shot at point blank range by unknown assailants," Bin Javaid said.
"So far we do not know what was the motive behind the attack and no one has claimed responsibility but security forces are saying that these people knew exactly who they wanted to target and how they wanted to target them."
'Necessary response'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quick to condemn what he said was an "atrocious attack against our consulate employees in Erbil".
"We are continuing our efforts with the Iraqi authorities and local authorities to ensure that the perpetrators of the attack are found quickly," Erdogan said in a post on Twitter.
His comments came after Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan's spokesman, vowed in a post on Twitter that Ankara would deliver "the necessary response ... to those who committed this treacherous attack".
Kalin added that efforts to find those responsible for the incident "had begun", but did not speculate over who might be responsible.
In recent weeks, Turkey has been carrying out cross-border operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq.
The PKK has been fighting against the Turkish state in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey since the 1980s and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/ ... 33688.html 
