Turkish airstrike targets alleged PKK members in Sulaimani’s Sharbajer area

Turkish warplanes on Wednesday targeted a vehicle allegedly belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), killing five, in Mawat town, northern Sulaimani province in the Kurdistan Region, according to a Turkish Defense Ministry statement.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish warplanes on Wednesday targeted a vehicle allegedly belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), killing five, in Mawat town, northern Sulaimani province in the Kurdistan Region, according to a Turkish Defense Ministry statement.

The airstrike comes following a clash on Tuesday between the PKK and Turkish army in a village in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province that left a 13-year-old girl injured.

Read More: Turkey-PKK clashes in Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province wounds 13-year-old girl

Five militants were “neutralized” as a result of the airstrike, according to a Turkish Defense ministry statement. The term “neutralize” is commonly used by Turkish officials to refer to enemy fighters killed, captured, or incapacitated.

The statement claimed the airstrike conducted was “a result of the coordinated work of our Turkish Armed Forces and the National Intelligence Service.”

The attack did not result in civilian casualties but caused property damage to the villagers, a source told Kurdistan 24.

On May 21, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), in the last five months, 77 percent of armed clashes and military operations involving Turkey and the PKK has taken place inside the Kurdistan Region, in northern Iraq, while only 23 percent of such incidents have occurred inside Turkey.

The PKK is engaged in a decades-long insurgency against Turkey over Kurdish rights and self-rule in a conflict that has resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 people on both sides.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has repeatedly told Ankara to cease airstrikes within the Kurdistan Region and has been critical of the PKK for using its territory as a base from which to conduct operations within Turkey.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany