Turkish bombardment sparks fear in Zakho villages

[Anthea]

Turkish warplanes bomb
Kurdish Mountain

Turkish warplanes on Saturday bombed areas on Duhok province’s Gare Mountain, said an official, causing fear among villagers a few kilometers away

“Two areas were bombed near the villages of Spindar and Grgash,” Sami Barwari, the head of Deraluk town, confirmed to Rudaw’s Nasir Ali on Saturday.

No casualties were reported by Kurdish authorities or locals from the surrounding villages.

Turkey’s Ministry of Defense claimed on Saturday to have killed four members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the same area.

“Every time there is a warplane, the people get scared. It’s a very awful feeling,” Sherwan Sargali, a local from Grgash village, told Rudaw English on Saturday. “What should we do? Should we leave our village and head to a park in Duhok and become refugees?”

Sargali said that around 5:00 pm Turkish warplanes dropped two bombs in an area only 3-4 kilometers away from Spindar village and 6-7 kilometer away from Grgash village. Around 70 to 80 families live in Grgash village, according to the villager.

Bombing in the area roughly two months ago hit so close to the village, fire neared houses and areas where herd animals graze, Sargali told Rudaw English, pressing locals to put out fires themselves or call up the fire service.

Gara Mountain used to be a popular attraction among tourists and locals looking for a dense snowy winter, as well as offering a fragment of history from the Saddam Hussein era, as his now-ruined palace sitting at the top of the mountain.

Turkey launched its current offensive in the Kurdistan Region mid-June, with the stated aim of removing PKK fighters from the border areas. Operations have focused on areas in Duhok province’s Zakho region where villagers living in the mountains have borne the brunt of Turkey's bombing. Several civilians have been killed in the strikes this year.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/051220202

[Anthea]

Turkish airstrike cuts the
electricity to Zakho villages

A Turkish airstrike targeting an alleged Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) vehicle cut off the electricity supply to two villages in Duhok’s Zakho district on Sunday night

The attack happened around 8:30pm, according to local Haji Ramadhan, who says strikes occur on a "daily basis."

"There is a lot of PKK activity in the area that was attacked," he said, adding "planes have not left the area and we cannot go and check for casualties."

“This is the second time in two weeks the Turkish military has bombed this area, they also attacked last week and cut off the electricity,” Dlsher Abdulstar, mayor of Batifa subdistrict told Rudaw’s Nasir Ali.

No villagers were hurt but houses sustained damage, according to the mayor.

“We will be sending our teams to fix the electricity today,” he said.

The strike took place near the village of Banka Saru. The PKK has not reported any casualties.

Turkey launched renewed airstrikes in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories in mid-June, dubbed Operation Claw-Eagle. Said to target PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region, eight civilians have been killed in the strikes. The ground operation, Claw-Tiger, concluded in September.

A drone strike hit a vehicle belonging to the Shingal Protection Units (YBS), a PKK-affiliated Yazidi armed group, west of Sinune town in Shingal on November 8, according to Sinune Mayor Khudeda Chuke.

The PKK is a Kurdish armed group which has fought Ankara for decades for greater rights for the country’s Kurdish minority.

A staggering 504 villages have been emptied by Turkish and Iranian incursions into the Kurdistan Region since 1992, according to a new report by the Kurdistan Parliament

Only 15 out of 40 houses remain occupied in Banka Sar, Ramadhan told Rudaw. It is only one of two villages left inhabited in the Batifa subdistrict.

Both Erbil and Baghdad have repeatedly called on Ankara to halt its attacks and have demanded the PKK cease using Kurdistan Region and Iraqi territory to launch attacks on Turkey.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/071220201

[Anthea]

Turkish bombs spark fear in Zakho

Just days after Iraq’s prime minister visited Ankara, Turkish forces bombed several villages in the north of the country, terrifying residents

Ten villages in the Batifa subdistrict of Duhok province’s Zakho area came under intense bombardment beginning around 6:30 pm Friday evening and lasting until late in the day, mayor Dlsher Abdulsattar told Rudaw English.

No casualties have been reported, but the bombardment created “a lot fear” among villagers, said the mayor. For some of the villages, this was the first time they came under Turkish attack.

Nizar Majeed, a local resident of Batifa, told Rudaw that the bombardment continued in his hometown and the nearby villages in Baguva subdistrict until early Saturday morning.

Batifa has frequently come under heavy bombardment by Turkish forces since Ankara launched its most recent land and air offensive against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in mid-June. There has, however, been little activity in Baguva.

Some of Turkey’s bombs landed near bases of Iraqi border guards, but did not cause casualties, a security source in Zakho told Rudaw English on condition of anonymity.

“The bombardment has caused a lot fear among locals of 4 or 5 villages in both Batifa and Baguva. What makes the bombardment different is that it was very intense,” said the security source.

In August, two members of the border guards were killed in a Turkish drone strike, causing the Iraqi government to cancel a planned visit of Turkey’s defense minister to Baghdad.

One day before this latest attack, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. Their discussions included joint operations against the PKK – an armed group with bases in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains and fighting for increased political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey.

In a joint press conference on Thursday, Erdogan said they “decided to continue our fight against our common enemies – Daesh [Islamic State], PKK, and FETO [Fethullah Gulen’s Service Movement] terrorist organisations.”

Kadhimi did not name any specific groups, but said he condemns “any action that threatens Turkey or any threat sourced from Iraqi soil against Turkey’s national security.”

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/191220201