Women’s rights activist assassinated in Kurdistan Region of Iraq

A women’s rights activist from Turkey was assassinated on Tuesday morning in Sulaimani city of Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), Mezopotamya Agency said. 

Nagihan Akarsel, a Kurdish journalist and a member of the Jineoloji research academy - founded for empowering women in the KRI - was shot multiple times by unidentified assailants and killed in front of her house, according to local agencies. 

Akarsel has been working on a project for the establishment of a library focusing on women’s studies, Mezopotamya said. 

Sulaimani police said that Akarsel’s body has been transferred to the city’s forensics department and an investigation has been initiated.

KRI’s Rudaw news agency said that the increasing number of assassinations in the region raised alarm amongst the Kurdish community from Turkey living in Northern Iraq. 

Again on Tuesday, an armed drone targeted a vehicle near the town of Mawat in Sulaimani province. Local authorities said a PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) member was injured who was inside the car during the attack.

At least two other assassinations targeting individuals reportedly linked to the PKK were killed in the Kurdistan Region earlier this year, Rudaw said. 

Zaki Chalabi, head of the Mesopotamia Workers Organization, was killed in May when unidentified assailants on a motorcycle opened fire at a restaurant he owned.

Suhail Khurshid, a cadre of the PKK-affiliated Freedom Movement, was shot dead by unknown assailants in front of his house in Kifri late August. The Freedom Movement told Rudaw that Khurshid “was killed by Turkey.”