As locals buried their dead,
Erdogan admitted that the victims of Wednesday night's attack near the Iraqi
border were smugglers and not separatist rebels as the army had originally
claimed.
Speaking to journalists in
Istanbul, Erdogan voiced his regret for what he called an "unfortunate and
distressing" incident. "Images transmitted by drones showed a group
of 40 people in the area, it was impossible to say who they were," he
said. "Afterward it was determined they were smugglers transporting
cigarettes and fuel on mules."
Turkish rights groups called
for a UN-sponsored investigation into the killing. "The incident requires
a detailed investigation, but it is an execution without due process, and
carries the characteristics of a mass murder in terms of the number of
victims," human rights groups IHD and Mazlumder said in a preliminary
report into Wednesday's airstrike.
"Turkish and
international nongovernmental organizations should investigate the incident and
the UN Human Rights Committee should send a committee right away," the
groups said.
Erdogan's government has
promised not to allow a cover-up of the incident.
"We are waiting for the
investigation results. We will share its results with the public," Deputy
Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters on Friday. "These incidents can
take place in the process of the fight against terror."
In their report, IHD and
Mazlumder quoted 19-year-old Haci Encu, who survived the attack and was in
hospital, as saying the smugglers were a group of about 40 to 50 people with
mules and were attacked by drones when they were crossing the border to Iraq.
"We were going for sugar and diesel. We even heard the drone, but we kept
on walking because it's our ordinary route," Encu is quoted as saying.
