Turkish drone strike on Iraq refugee camp kills three

Three civilians were killed in a Turkish drone attack on Iraq refugee camp on Saturday. The refugee camp is in northern Iraq in an area Turkish president recently threatened to "clean up, said a Kurdish lawmaker.

Rashad Galali, a Kurdish MP from Makhmur, told AFP the strike targeted "a kindergarten near a school" in the UN-supported camp that houses Kurdish refugees from Turkey.

"Three civilians were killed and two wounded," he said.

Earlier this week, Turkey President Recep Tayyiop Erdogan compared Makhmur to Mount Qandil region along Iraq's eastern border. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has rear bases in Mount Qandil region. PKK has been outlawed by Turkey.

"The issue of Makhmur is as important to us as Qandil... because Makhmur has become the incubator of Qandil... and if we don't intervene the incubator will continue producing (terrorists)," he said.

"If the United Nations does not clean up this district, we will take care of it in our capacity as a UN member state," Erdogan warned.

Since mid-90s, Turkish troops have maintained network of bases in northern Iraq. The bases have been maintained as per security agreements with now ousted regime of dictator Saddam Hussein.

The PKK has waged a rebellion in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey since 1984 that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

The PKK maintains rear bases in northern Iraq, from where they train their fighters and launch attacks on Turkey which has hit back with air attacks and the occasional ground incursion into Iraq.

Saturday's drone attack came hours after five Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters were killed in a clashes with the PKK in the Mount Matin district of northern Dohuk province, an official said.

Serbast Lazkin, deputy minister for peshmerga affairs in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, said two peshmerga fighters were also wounded in the clash.

(With inputs from agencies)