Turkish shelling killed three in Kurdistan Region's Amedi: official

The mayor of a small town near the Kurdistan Region’s northern border on Thursday said that overnight Turkish shelling of the area resulted in the death of three villagers.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The mayor of a small town near the Kurdistan Region’s northern border on Thursday said that overnight Turkish warplanes shelling the area caused the death of three villagers.

“Three civilian residents of Sarsing subdistrict’s Ardana village…were killed by Turkish shelling,” Nashwan Hussein, Mayor of Sarsing subdistrict, told Kurdistan 24. Sarsing is part of the Amadiya (Amedi) district in Duhok province.

Hussein explained that the villagers were on their way to a nearby village by the name of Girka, part of the Kani Masi subdistrict, where they were struck by the bombardment.

Families of the victims from Ardana village await the arrival of the bodies on Nov. 15, 2018. (Photo: Social media)
Families of the victims from Ardana village await the arrival of the bodies on Nov. 15, 2018. (Photo: Social media)

Girka lies in a mountainous area near the Metina region, which locals have mostly abandoned in recent years due to constant skirmishes between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkey, and bombardments by the latter.

Earlier on Wednesday, another Turkish attack took place roughly 100 kilometers to the east of Amedi, in the Sidakan district of Erbil Province, reportedly, in response to a PKK assault on Turkish positions in the area near the northern border of the Kurdistan Region.

“The shelling started at 9:30 [am] near the villages of Lelkan, Chia-Dell, Khalifan, and Balasnan, and went on for 45 minutes,” the Mayor of Sidakan subdistrict—in the Erbil province’s Soran District—Ihsan Chalabi, told Kurdistan 24 following the incident.

Turkey has routinely shelled and attacked with warplanes areas well past its border with the Kurdistan Region, claiming nearby detection of members of the PKK, a group fighting a decades-long insurgency with Ankara over Kurdish rights and self-rule.

Last week, an airstrike launched by Turkey hit a resort area in the Kurdistan Region, damaging the cars of picnickers who quickly fled the scene.

Locals and visiting tourists told Kurdistan 24 they witnessed artillery barrages near the resort area of Ava Mark which lies in Sheladize subdistrict in Amedi.

Editing by Nadia Riva