Kurdish TV Channel burnt down while carrying reports on Sulaimaniya events

SULAIMANIYA / IraqiNews.com: A group of armed men have attacked the office of the Kurdish (NRT) Channel in northern Sulaimaniya, completely burning it and wounding one of its guards, a security source said. “About 30 armed men have broken through the Kurdish NRT Channel in the so-called “German Village” north of Sulaimaniya, wounding one of its guards in the chest and completely burning its office. This caused disruptions to the transmission of the channel that used to carry out reports about recent demonstrations and the city,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. Noteworthy is that hundreds of demonstrators have gone to the streets of Sulaimaniya last Thursday, demanding the improvement of public services and living standards, as well as fighting corruption and carrying out political reforms, during which about 7 of the demonstrators were killed and 47 others injured in shooting in front of the headquarters of the Kurdisan Democratic Party (KDP), where the demonstrators gathered. Sulaimaniya Govenor, Pahruz Mohammed, had announced a curfew between 07:00 p.m. and 07:00 a.m. local time, whilst three headquarters of the Kurdish opposition Goran (Change) Movement were set on fire in Arbil, Dohuk and Suran cities, causing no injuries. The Goran Movement had considered opening fire on civilians by the guards of the KDP’s headquarters on civilian demonstrators as a “crime,” demanding an emergency meeting of Kurdistan Parliament to discuss the current situation. Meanwhile, an eyewitness told IraqiNews.com news agency that the said Channel “had been carrying out an experimental transmission over the past three weeks, and began its actual transmission three days ago, and had been carrying out reports about the demonstrations in Sulaimaniya, during which it carried video shots of a young man, called Rizwan, who was shot dead during the demonstrations, along with other shots by the security forces on the demonstrators, close the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Noteworthy is that the said Channel, led by Twana Othman, who held the post of Editor-in-Chief of the Kurdish Hawlaty newspaper, that used to carry reports against the government of north Iraq’s Kurdistan Region’s government. SKH (TI)/SR 1018