Turkish warplanes conduct strikes inside Kurdistan Region

Turkish airstrikes on Friday night targeted a civilians' residences in the Kani-Masi sub-district in the Kurdistan Region’s Amedi area.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish airstrikes on Friday night targeted a civilians' residences in the Kani-Masi sub-district in the Kurdistan Region’s Amedi area, causing considerable material damage to three houses, but no human casualties reported.

Over the past decade, Turkey has repeatedly crossed its southern border into the autonomous Kurdistan Region, mostly in the provinces of Duhok and Erbil, in some places, up to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) deep.

Ankara claims it is targeting fighters and positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group that has been fighting a decades-long insurgency with Ankara over Kurdish rights and self-rule. Turkey, the US, and the EU have designated the PKK a “terrorist organization.”

According to a Kurdistan 24 correspondent in the area, Turkish fighter jets bombarded Amedi's village of Desheshi.  

The PKK is thought to have fighters near many of the villages in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region, near the Turkish and Iranian borders.

Hundreds of villages along the Turkish-Kurdistan border have been evacuated in recent months due to the ongoing violence and clashes between PKK and the Turkish military.

Over the past few years, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has repeatedly called on the PKK to stop using the region as a launchpad for its attacks against Turkish government forces.

Editing by John J. Catherine