VIDEO: Turkish army, PKK battle near northern border of Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Clashes broke out Wednesday evening between fighters of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and the Turkish army near a Christian village situated at the northern border of the Kurdistan Region.

In the video posted on social media, the sound of different weapons can be heard in the armed exchange, which took place near Ain Nuni or Kani Masi, a sub-district in Duhok Province’s Amadiya District.

Kani Masi, from where the video was shot, is located nearly four kilometers from the Turkish border and is populated by Christians.

Locals told Kurdistan 24 the Turkish army later responded to the PKK fighters by using artillery fire. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Sarbast Akrei, mayor of Kani Masi, told Kurdistan 24 the exchange lasted about an hour and raised panic among villagers. 

The Turkish army regularly launches ground assaults on the group and bombards areas it claims are occupied by fighters of the PKK, which Ankara, along with Washington and NATO, designates as a terrorist organization.

The PKK, a group that has been fighting a decades-long insurgency with Ankara over Kurdish rights and self-rule, is thought to have fighters near hundreds of villages inside the Kurdistan Region, mainly in the mountainous areas near the Turkish border. Erbil has repeatedly called on the group to stop using the region as a launchpad for its attacks.

As part of the conflict, the Turkish army has crossed its southern border several times in the past year, in some places up 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) deep into the Kurdistan Region.

Ankara’s incursion and the battles that take place near civilians’ homes, has led to many to leave their settlements and seek safety, southward, at the cost of losing their lands and livelihoods.

In early December, a school in a Christian village sixty kilometers westward temporarily halted all activities due to intermittent Turkish shelling near the area. Fifteen days later, the facility was reopened after the local government was able to provide more teachers to replace those who had vacated.

Editing by Nadia Riva