Iraq erects new border posts as Turkey-PKK clashes intensify, forcing village evacuation

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi forces have erected four new military posts on the border between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey amid a new round of clashes between Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), forcing nearby villagers to abandon their homes.

The move by Iraqi border police on Tuesday came after Turkey launched a new round of airstrikes and a ground operation – dubbed Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt – against its decades-old archenemy, the PKK. The main battlefield for the renewed war is the border areas of the Kurdistan Region, which on Tuesday witnessed an overnight village evacuation due to the conflict.

Iraqi forces operate in the area as they are tasked with protecting the country’s borders, but the new military posts come in response to recent advances by Turkish forces further into the Region, Kurdistan 24 has learned.

Village Evacuation

The continued military confrontations have been costly, particularly for local inhabitants. Kesta village in the Amedi region of Duhok province was completely evacuated as violence encroached on the area, according to the village’s mayor, Mahmood Kestayi, who spoke to Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday.

“We are destroyed between them [Turkey and PKK],” Kestayi said, complaining about the PKK’s hideouts close to the village, which have attracted Turkish aggression.

The village Kestayi heads includes 25 houses, which have all now been abandoned for safety reasons.

The newly built border posts are located in four different villages in the Amedi district, including Kesta. In total, more than 300 villages in the region have been completely evacuated due to the continued clashes between Turkey and PKK.

Kesta villagers have also evacuated their livestock in fear of the animals being targeted in the conflict.

“I have sold some of my livestock,” one villager told Kurdistan 24, as he had been unable to graze them due to the threat.

The PKK has been engaged in a decades-long engaged in a decades-long conflict with Turkey over Kurdish rights in Turkey. The fighting has led to tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. Authorities in the Kurdistan Region have repeatedly called on Turkey and the PKK to avoid conflict in the Kurdistan Region, which has witnessed deadly incidents as a result of the fighting.

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly