Issa Ibrahim Hiso, a prominent member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), was assassinated on Tuesday morning, July 30. Some Kurds suspect a connection between the murder and the recent visits of Kurdish leaders to Turkey, although fighting has also been taking place since July 16 between al-Qaeda and the Kurds.
The assassination follows a two-day visit by PYD leader Salih Muslim with Turkish foreign officials on July 26 and 27, and one by Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on July 29 to discuss an upcoming national Kurdish conference in Erbil in mid-August.
