Hero Bahadin, a 27-year-old Kurdish Iraqi video editor with Chatr Multimedia Production Company, was killed on August 23, 2024, when a Turkish drone strike hit her unmarked car near Goptapa village in Iraqi Kurdistan’s northeastern Sulaymaniyah province.
Gulistan Tara, a Kurdish journalist from Turkey, one of two colleagues in the car, was also killed. Rebin Bakir, a Kurdish Iraqi video editor and social media officer, received treatment for broken legs and hands at Shar Hospital in Sulaymaniyah, Sterk TV reporter Hawzhin Shwan told CPJ.
Chatr Multimedia Production Company operates Sterk TV and Aryen TV, news channels, both of which broadcast in Kurdish and are funded by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey, the U.S., and the European Union have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization and Iraq’s National Security Council banned the group in March 2024.
The three were on a reporting mission along the Sulaymaniyah-Halabja road when they were hit, Kamal Hamaraza, head of Chatr Multimedia Production Company, told CPJ, adding that the journalists had “no direct or indirect connection to politics or military activities.”
Turkey claimed responsibility for the attack. Citing a source from the National Intelligence Organization, Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency said that Turkey’s intelligence agency had “‘neutralized’ senior PKK terrorist Gulistan Tekik” in a “targeted operation.” She was carrying out propaganda, disinformation, and recruitment activities for the PKK, it said. CPJ did not find any evidence to support this claim and reviewed multiple examples of Tara’s work that referred to her as a journalist, including video interviews with news outlets.
Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency, told CPJ via messaging app that the agency would provide comment but did not respond to further calls.
CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations did not receive a response.
Hero Bahadin was buried at Qaratukhan cemetery in Sulaymaniyah on August 23, 2024.