Villagers flee as Turkey repeatedly shells Kurdistan Region border areas

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish warplanes on Thursday launched multiple airstrikes in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region near the Turkish border, causing local villagers to flee from their homes out of fear.

Local sources told Kurdistan 24 that the planes raided the outskirts of Gouharze village located on the mountain range of Metina in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok Province. The location of the strike was just ten kilometers away from the town of Amedi. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Turkey has routinely shelled and attacked areas well past its borders and into the Kurdistan Region, claiming nearby detection of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions. Many civilians have been killed in such attacks in recent years.

Multiple Kurdish and Christian families living in these areas have been displaced from their homes, while other residents continue to call on Ankara and the PKK to take their fighting elsewhere.

The PKK has been engaged in a decades-long insurgency against Turkey over Kurdish rights and self-rule. Turkey, the United States, and the European Union all designate it as a "terrorist" group.

In late March, Turkish media claimed that in one Turkish cross-border attack, warplanes wounded a senior PKK member and killed three other high-ranking members. 

According to one report by the Anadolu Agency, the Turkish military targeted a vehicle that was carrying all four of the purported casualties which it named as Raza Altun, a leadership member of the PKK superset Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), a spokesperson, a foreign affairs officer, and a head commander in Kurdistan's Qandil Mountains, where the group is headquartered.

PKK affiliated media outlets did not corroborate the statement.  

Editing by John J. Catherine