Hood event

The Hood event (Turkish: Çuval Olayı) was an incident on July 4, 2003 following the 2003 invasion of Iraq where a group of Turkish military personnel operating in northern Iraq were captured, led away with hoods over their heads, and interrogated by the United States military. American soldiers seized 15kg of explosives, sniper rifles, grenades and maps of Kirkuk, with circles drawn around positions near the governor's building when they raided Turkish offices in Sulaimaniya. The soldiers were released after sixty hours, after Turkey protested to the United States. A Kurdish intelligence official claimed that the Turkish soldiers had been linked to a plot to assassinate the newly elected governor of Kirkuk to destabilise the region so that Turkish forces would be needed to restore order.

Though neither side ever apologized, a US-Turkish commission set up to investigate the incident later issued a joint statement of regret. In addition, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote a letter to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing sorrow over the incident. The Hood event damaged diplomatic relations between Turkey and the United States and marked a low point in US-Turkish relations. While the incident received comparatively little coverage in the United States, it was a major event in Turkey, many of whose citizens saw it as a deliberate insult and nicknamed it "The Hood event".

Turkey had long viewed northern Iraq, with its large Kurdish population, as a possible national security threat. During the 1980s and 1990s, Turkey fought against PKK, operating mainly in southeastern Turkey. More than 30,000 people were killed and millions more were displaced. During the war, the PKK established bases in Iraq and Syria.

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