The Turkish Air Force launched bombings in Iraq on Tuesday against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebel positions, authorities in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan said, citing “human losses”.
“Turkish fighters have targeted several positions of PKK fighters”, a Turkish Kurdish separatist movement, mainly in the Mahmur and Sinjar areas (north), the Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Service said in a statement, without giving a specific account of the casualties.
The PKK, described as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies, has rear bases and training camps in the Sinjar region and in the mountainous areas of Iraqi Kurdistan, which borders Turkey.
Ankara, which has de facto established several dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan for 25 years, launched in the spring of 2021 the ninth large-scale military operation against the PKK in northern Iraq, with repeated airstrikes and airstrikes.
“According to the information we have received, the Turkish Air Force has bombed six PKK positions in the Karzoχ Mountains,” which oversee the displacement of displaced Kurds in the Mahmur area, according to the statement.
There have also been reports of “strikes” against “two other positions in the Sinjar Mountains and neighboring Syria”, as well as bombings in Iraq’s Sila area, also very close to the border with Syria.
“The bombings resulted in casualties and property damage,” the statement said.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights yesterday spoke of a “Turkish UAV strike” against a Syrian Kurdish force position near oil wells in Ramallah, in the northeastern part of the war-torn Syria, without mentioning the PKK.
Northeastern Syria is in the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has been repeatedly involved in battles with Turkish troops, also present in parts of northern Syria.
In December, three Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Iraq attributed to the PKK by Ankara. In August, four Turkish soldiers were killed during operations against separatists in the area.
Also in August, at least three people were killed in a Turkish airstrike in northwestern Iraq, targeting a clinic believed to be treating a wounded PKK member.
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