Iraq rejected Turkey’s denial of responsibility for the deadly artillery attack on an Iraqi tourist resort as families of the victims buried their loved ones on Thursday.
“The Iraqi state's narrative confirms that Ankara is behind the attack, which is not the first and comes in a series of continuous attacks,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Al Sahhaf said on Thursday.
“Turkey's denial of responsibility is a sick joke that Iraqi diplomacy will not accept.”
Turkey rejected accusations that its military fired four shells at Zakho, a town in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, on Wednesday. Nine Iraqis were killed, including two children, while 23 others were wounded.
“According to the information we received from the Turkish Armed Forces, we did not carry out any attack against civilians,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.
He pledged that Turkey would “co-operate with the Iraqi authorities after the treacherous attack that we believe was carried out by terrorist groups”.
Turkey said its troops were in Iraq only to counter Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, who it accuses of carrying out cross-border attacks on Turkish troops.
Iraq's National Security Council on Wednesday demanded that Turkey withdraw its troops from northern Iraq after holding an emergency session chaired by Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi.
Turkey has launched military operations and air raids on PKK strongholds in the mountains of northern Iraq for years.
It has established several military posts in the Kurdistan region since the 1990s without the consent of the federal government in Baghdad, including a military base in the town of Bashiqa after the takeover of Mosul by ISIS extremists in 2014.
Ankara said its troops were deployed in co-ordination with authorities in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Mr Al Sahhaf disputed Turkey's justifications for its military presence in northern Iraq.
“What Turkey says, that there is an old agreement that allows it to send its troops to Iraqi territories, is incorrect as there is only a record of a meeting that Ankara held with the previous regime and the record, however, obliges it to request the permission of the Iraqi government and that the incursion does not exceed five kilometres, and they did not abide by the same record,” he said.
Since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, successive Iraqi governments have accused the Turkish army of carrying out ground attacks up to 60km within Iraq’s territory in the north.
Civilian casualties in northern Iraq have been reported and documented in several attacks in recent years.
There is no official tally of the number of Turkish troops in Iraq but some Kurdish and Iraqi media outlets estimate there are about 250.
Turkey has urged the Iraqi government and people not to listen to what it called PKK propaganda.
More than words
New protests over the attack broke out after the funerals of the victims on Thursday.
The coffins of the dead, draped in Iraqi national flags and festooned with flowers, were flown to Baghdad from Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region.
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and Kurdish Regional President Nechirvan Barzani led the pallbearers carrying the smallest of the coffins, a child's, on to the military plane in Erbil.
An honour guard carried the coffins at a ceremony attended by Mr Al Kadhimi on the tarmac of Baghdad's airport.
Protesters outside the Turkish embassy in Baghdad called on the Iraqi government to do more than issue statements condemning the attack.
They brandished portraits of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that called him a “terrorist” and trampled on Turkish flags.
There were calls on Iraqi social media accounts to boycott Turkish products.
Bilateral trade in 2021 stood at $19.5 billion. Iraq became Turkey's fifth-largest export market in 2021, according to the website of the Turkish foreign ministry.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Scoreline
Man Utd 2 Pogba 27', Martial 49'
Everton 1 Sigurdsson 77'
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
How it works
A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank
Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night
The charge is stored inside a battery
The ratio is that for every minute you crank, it provides 10 minutes light on the brightest mode
A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes
This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode
When more light is needed, it can be recharged by winding again
The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge
No limit on how many times you can charge
Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
INFO
Everton 0
Arsenal 0
Man of the Match: Djibril Sidibe (Everton)
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Juliet, Naked
Dir: Jesse Peretz
Starring: Chris O'Dowd, Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke
Two stars
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
