On July 8, a suspected Turkish strike in northern Iraq struck a car carrying a Cira TV crew, including reporters Mydia Hussen and Murad Mirza and their driver, Khalaf Khdir.
All three sustained head injuries. On July 11, 2024, Mirza died from the injuries sustained in the strike. He was buried on July 12 in the Girê Gewir Cemetery, according to his outlet.
Hussen and Mirza were returning from covering the tenth anniversary of an Islamic State (ISIS) attack on the southern village Tal al-Qasab, according to Argash Shingali, a board member of Germany-based satellite broadcaster Çira TV. Shingali said the car did not have any media marking.
The strike hit the journalists’ car in Sinjar (Shingal in Kurdish) District in northern Iraq on July 8, 2024, according to Shingali and Mehvan Hinji, head of Êzidxan Asayish forces, which is affiliated with the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS), a Yazidi militia with ties to 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 earlier this year.
A statement on July 8 by Cira TV and a report by pro-PKK media outlet Rojnews said the strike was carried out by Turkish forces, a claim repeated by Kurdistan Region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in a Monday press release. Shingali told CPJ that the outlets confirmed it was a Turkish strike after speaking to Êzidxan Asayish forces.
Hinji told CPJ via messaging app that they were still investigating whether the strike originated from Turkish forces.
Sinjar is part of a disputed territory in northern Iraq and has been occupied by a succession of Iraqi and militant groups. Turkey often conducts strikes in Sinjar, targeting YBS fighters. Local authorities banned Çira TV from operating in the Iraqi Kurdistan province of Duhok in September 2019 amid longstanding tensions between the PKK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which controls the province.
CPJ’s repeated calls for comment to Mohammed Al-Zahabi, the director of Iraqi national security forces in Shingal city, were unanswered. CPJ also did not receive a response to its email to the Turkish mission at the United Nations asking whether the journalists’ car was deliberately targeted.