Dozens of protesters gathered in Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest city of the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, on Saturday to denounce a drone strike attributed to the Turkish military that killed two journalists allegedly linked to the PKK.

When contacted by AFP, the Turkish Defense Ministry denied any responsibility for the shelling, which was launched on Friday in the Sayyid Sadek sector.

A source in the Iraqi security forces, as well as the anti-terrorist service in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, spoke of a blow that was probably launched by the Turkish armed forces.

The bombing, which also left a man injured, killed Gulistan Tara, a 40-year-old Kurdish journalist from Turkey, and Hiro Bahadin, an Iraqi Kurdish editor, according to information from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

They worked for the production company CHATR, which feeds two “news networks funded by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party” (PKK), according to the same source.

About a hundred people, journalists and activists, gathered yesterday in a public garden in Sulaymaniyah, holding portraits of the two victims, an AFP journalist found. “The martyrs are immortal,” shouted the crowd among others.

“The Turkish bombings are affecting everyone in Kurdistan, the civilian population is becoming a victim, life in the province has almost stopped because you can’t live with the bombings day and night, every minute and every hour,” said activist Robar Ahmed.

Ankara only confirms some of the bombings it launches on Iraqi soil. It conducts frequent ground and air operations against the PKK in northern Iraq.

The Kurdish armed separatist movement, which has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish state since 1984, is labeled a “terrorist” organization by Ankara, the US and the EU.

The PKK rebels have had rear bases in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan for decades; the area has also been home to several Turkish military bases over the past 25 years.

Following a visit by Turkish officials to Iraq, Baghdad discreetly designated the PKK a “banned organization” in March. And, in mid-August, Turkey and Iraq signed a bilateral military cooperation agreement, which notably provides for the creation of joint command and training centers in the fight against the PKK.

Rahman Gharib, director of the METRO Center for Journalists’ Rights, lamented during the rally Iraq’s “inability” to take a stand against Turkish military operations against the PKK on its soil.

“Iraq and Kurdistan concluded a security agreement with the Turkish side that obliges them to participate,” he complained.