Turkish attack against PKK in Kurdistan's Duhok causes damage, panic among villagers

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish artillery struck two villages in the vicinity of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province on Monday, local sources told Kurdistan 24.

Both Banki Saro and Banki Khwaru villages, located in Zakho's rural Batifa district, are areas where PKK militants are known to maintain a presence. 

According to the sources, the shelling caused severe damage to multiple homes, farms, other private property, and roads, cutting electricity to residences and causing a state of panic among villagers.

The PKK has been locked in a decades-long conflict against Ankara over Kurdish rights in Turkey that has led to tens of thousands of deaths on both sides.

The group is headquartered in the Kurdistan Region's Qandil Mountains, mostly in rural areas along the Turkish and Iranian borders.

Officials from both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have repeatedly called on Turkey and the PKK to take their fight away from areas populated by civilians, thousands of whom have been displaced or sustained damage to their farms, livestock, or homes. Others have suffered serious injury or even death as a result of skirmishes or Turkish bombardment of suspected PKK positions.

Earlier on Monday, Turkey reportedly bombed another mountainous part of Zakho where two Arab tourists were killed in late August when an explosive device the regional government says was planted by PKK militants detonated.

Read More: Two Iraqi tourists killed by roadside bomb in Zakho: Sources

Editing by John J. Catherine

Additional Reporting by Islam Yousef