Nine people were killed and at least 23 injured when the Turkish state bombed a picnic site in the village of Perex in the southern Kurdish district of Zakho on 20 July. The victims include one-year-old Zahra and twelve-year-old Sara. Seven of them had come to Zakho from Baghdad for holidays, two men came from Karbala.

While Turkey denied involvement in the deadly attack which has triggered strong reactions from many states, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, told the press after the massacre that as a result of the investigations carried out by military experts, it was determined that the attack on Zakho had been carried out by Turkey.

According to the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), the artillery fire came from the Turkish military base Xamtir in Xatîrê. CPT representative Kamaran Osman told the Mezopotamya Agency (MA) that they went to the village after the bombing: "We talked to witnesses and wounded people and learned from them that four shots were fired. They confirmed to us that all these four shots were fired from the Turkish military base Xamtir."

The Parliament of Iraq has convened for a special session today to discuss the deadly attack with the participation of the Chief of Staff, Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Joint Operations Deputy Commander Abdul Amir al-Shammari.

"We have collected the remains of the shells on the ground and had them examined by experts in Baghdad. We can say with the utmost probability that this attack was carried out by the Turkish state. The launch site of the shells is seven kilometres away from the target of the attack," Abdul Amir al-Shammari stated.