Between 6 and 8 PM on Thursday, December 28th, 2023, at least five people were killed and two others injured after an alleged Turkish drone strike on the village of Karki in the Sinjar district of Mosul province. The civilian status of five of the men killed is contested within the sources.

Those killed were young men, originally from northern and eastern Syria; information on the wounded was not made available. Roj News, in conjunction with the Democratic Autonomous Administration of Shingal District identified the deceased as follows: 21-year-old Ramadan al-Hammadi, originally from Raqqa; 24-year-old Shaheen Ali, from Kobani; 20-year-old Hussein al-Hussein, also from Raqqa; 23-year-old Ahmed al-Mohammed al-Ali, from Raqqa; and Raqqa-born Munir al-Bakour. al-Bakour’s age was not publicly declared.

There remains dispute regarding the circumstances of the strike. While the local administration in Sinjar reported those killed were working digging wells to provide water for the villages of Kora Samukiya, Al-Arbay News stated that the bombing was a deliberate strike targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Al-Araby claimed their source, members of Nineveh security, as saying the strike targeted “a group of Labor Party activists.” Al-Arbay also specified that the local Sinjar administration is “known for its association” with the PKK.

Haider Sheshu, a commander of local militia Ezidkhan Protection Units, stated that he was unsure “whether the dead were fighters or civilians.”

Roj News reported the belligerent bombed the area three consecutive times. All of the sources attributed the drone strikes to Turkish forces.