Three civilians were killed in a Turkish air strike on the town of Dêrelûk (Deralok) in Southern Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. The victims, Muhsin Hacî, Sefer Selîm and Hesen Sadiq - members of the Nêrwehi tribe - had been missing since Monday (December 7). On that day, according to relatives, they were on their farmland in the outskirts of the village of Zêwe when the region was bombed by the Turkish air force. Their bodies have been retrieved from the scene only today.

Since the beginning of the week, residents of the region and relatives of the victims have tried to visit the bombed region to search for the missing. Witnesses had heard cries for help shortly after Monday's air strike. Since the area east of the city of Amadiya has witnessed uninterrupted activity by fighter jets and reconnaissance drones of the Turkish army and has been attacked several times since then, people have only today managed to start searching for Hacî, Selîm and Sadiq. But even today, fighter jets tried to scare off the local residents with air strikes.

The authorities in the KDP-controlled region had not initiated any search measures. After relatives of the victims reported them missing, the KDP-affiliated media even spread the claim that Muhsin Hacî, Sefer Selîm and Hesen Sadiq had been kidnapped by PKK guerrillas. This is a common practice among the KDP, which is cooperating with Ankara. This is not the first time that the PKK or its guerrillas have been blamed for Turkish war crimes.