ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Turkish army has advanced 15 kilometers deep into the Kurdistan Region’s territory and carried out hundreds of strikes as part of its new military operation targeting Kurdish fighters, a conflict monitor said on Sunday.
Turkey late last month sent hundreds of troops and military vehicles into the Kurdistan Region, establishing checkpoints and military patrols in Duhok province’s Barwari Bala area. Its latest military campaign has instilled renewed fears into villagers, with at least one village abandoned.
“The new operation in the Barwari Bala area signifies the depth of Turkish military ground operations into Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish Armed Forces have advanced 15 kms into Iraqi Kurdistan Territory,” the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a US-based human rights organization and conflict monitor tracking Ankara’s operations in the Kurdistan Region, said in a statement.
“Since the start of the new Turkish military operation, Turkey has conducted 238 bombardments in Iraqi Kurdistan, primarily in the Duhok governorate. As a result of Turkish bombardments, more than 20,000 dunams of agricultural lands have burned,” the monitor added.
Ankara’s military incursion this time around is a significant increase over its military operation in 2021, dubbed Claw-Lightning, when its army had only advanced 7 kilometers into Kurdistan Region territory, according to CPT.
The campaign is aimed at curbing stated threats from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) along its border with the Kurdistan Region.
The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state for decades in the struggle for greater Kurdish rights and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara.
Rudaw has learned that the Turkish army has begun operations near Kani Masi and Mount Metina in Duhok province. Soldiers patrol the area with heavy weapons and have created several checkpoints - the main of which being near Balave and Belizani villages on the main road between Bamarni and Kani Masi subdistricts, about 57 kilometers northeast of Duhok city.
Clashes between Turkish forces and PKK fighters have caused numerous wildfires. Each side blames the other for the blazes.
“In the village of Sargale, approximately 55% of its agricultural land has been burnt by Turkish attacks. Turkish operations in Iraqi Kurdistan place at least 602 villages under the threat of displacement with at least 162 already displaced,” CPT stressed.
Civilian infrastructure has also been destroyed in the operation, which includes a school in Amedi district’s Mizhe village and an Assyrian church in the village of Mishka.
The Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have yet to comment on the escalations in Duhok province.
Baghdad earlier this year labeled PKK as a banned organization ahead of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rare visit to Iraq in April. Both countries signed numerous agreements that included security.
The recent escalation in attacks is a part of Turkey’s plans to eradicate the Kurdish group along its southern border with the Kurdistan Region. Erdogan said in March that Ankara is close to completing a zone that will “permanently resolve” the security issues along their border with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq by the summer.
But Ankara’s relentless military strikes and the deployment of ground troops have also stoked fear in the local villagers of Duhok province’s mountainous areas, fearing displacement from their villages as mortar shells and constant gunfire prompt panic.
Turkey has carried out more than 1,076 attacks on the Kurdistan Region and Nineveh province so far in 2024, according to CPT data.
On Thursday, the Turkish defense ministry announced that one of its soldiers was killed by the PKK in Duhok province.
