BAGHDAD, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim on Wednesday held a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu over the killing of an employee of the Turkish consulate in Iraq's northern city of Erbil.
During the phone call, al-Hakim confirmed that "the foreign ministry is coordinating with the Iraqi authorities investigating the incident to identify its motives and circumstances," a statement by the foreign ministry said.
Al-Hakim said that this criminal act will not undermine the Iraqi-Turkish ties, but rather grows the two sides' determination to consolidate their relations, according to the statement.
Earlier in the day, a Turkish consulate employee and a civilian were killed while another person was wounded when gunmen opened fire at a restaurant in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, according to a statement by the Kurdish security service, known as Asayish.
"We strongly condemn the incident, and we assure the people of Erbil, especially the diplomats, that we will not allow anyone to destabilize security and stability in the Kurdistan Region. We have opened an investigation into the incident and the perpetrators will receive their fair punishment," the Asayish statement added.
Earlier in the day, a Kurdish security source told Xinhua that unidentified gunmen opened fire on the Turkish consulate's personnel at a restaurant in Kolan Street near the consulate in central Erbil, some 375 km north of Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Kurdish security forces cordoned off the area and began a search campaign looking for the attackers who fled the scene, and intensified security measures in all the entrances of the city, according to the Kurdish security source.
