Kurdish journalist Tuba Akyılmaz died on March 23, 2017 from injuries suffered 20 days earlier in a clash between the the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Rojava Peshmerga and Shingal Protection Units, backed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in Shingal, in north-western Iraq. Akyılmaz, also known as Nujiyan Erhan, was a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Roj News, based in Iraq, as well as Gazete Sujin, a since-shuttered, Turkey-based women’s news agency. She was also a correspondent for the since-shuttered, pro-Kurdish, female-only Jin News Agency (JINHA) in Turkey.
Two other reporters – Hadi İlyas and İzzet İsmet, who both work for ÇIRA TV – were also reportedly injured. İlyas said the three were returning from an area where they had been trying to interview Rojava Peshmerga troops when they decided to cover clashes that had broken out. He accused the Rojava Peshmerga of having fired on them, but regional government sources reportedly accused Akyılmaz of being part of a group that ambushed Rojava Peshmerga troops.