A father and his son were shot dead, and nine persons were wounded as well in a gunmen attack in Khanaqin.
The incident happened at 10:30 p.m. on February 12, when Hayder Ihsan, who is a Peshmerga, was on his way from Kahanaqin to his village, Bahar Taza.
Khalid Said Murad, Hayder’s cousin, said, “he went to Khanaqin to visit his relatives, and on his way back, he was shot and killed in his car which burned down.”
Murad explained that they have no information about the perpetrators and said, “we do not know whether the car caught fire from the shooting or it was set on fire.”
Hayder Ihsan was a guardian peshmerga of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) branch in Khanaqin.
The village of Bahar Taza is located 7 km south of the Khanaqin district.
While Haydar Ihsan was being attacked, his family and people of the village went to rescue him. However, Hayder’s father, Ihsan, was also wounded in the shooting and died. His brother and two other villagers were also injured, according to Murad.
A security source said, “after the attack, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) visited the place of the incident, but a road boom exploded which wounded four of soldiers.”
The source claimed that the attack was carried out by “ISIS.”
In another incident on February 6, a father and his son were killed when they confronted unknown shooters who attacked their village.
The gunmen usually carry out the attacks in late evenings, and villagers voluntarily protect the villages.
These attacks have happened several times and have resulted in the evacuation of 12 villages of Khanaqin.
