Kamaran Hassan, Mawat’s mayor, told Rudaw on Saturday that warplanes targeted Galala village in the district at around 11:00 pm Friday, setting fire to a large area of fields and pastures.
In the hot and dry summer, fires are easily sparked and can spread quickly.
Turkey intensified its military operations in the Kurdistan Region in mid-June, under the pretext of targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In addition to Mawat, suspected Turkish warplanes also struck Erbil’s Choman and Sidakan districts on Friday evening, Kamaran Osman, a member of the US-based Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) - Iraqi Kurdistan team, told Rudaw.
Rojnews, a PKK-affiliated media outlet, reported that Turkish strikes also targeted Aghjalar subdistrict, west of Sulaimani, on Saturday.
Hundreds of Turkish troops and military vehicles have been deployed into the Kurdistan Region since June, establishing checkpoints and conducting patrols in northern Duhok’s Barwari Bala area. The military campaign has sparked renewed fears among villagers.
At least nine people have been killed in Turkish attacks on the Kurdistan Region since the start of the year, according to Osman.
Mawat is a frequent target of suspected Turkish strikes. At least one person was killed in an airstrike on a house in Galala in April.
In August 2023, two suspected PKK members were killed in separate Turkish drone strikes on the same day, one on Sulaimani’s Dukan-Khalakan road and the other on Mawat.
Ankara has accused Sulaimani’s administration of having close ties with the PKK. A flight ban on Sulaimani International Airport by Turkey has been in place since April 2023. The Turkish foreign ministry has said that the ban is related to an “intensification” of PKK activity in the province.
