Security

Turkish drone strikes PKK camp in Makhmour

According to Kurdistan 24’s correspondent in the area, the Turkish drone attack targeted a vehicle with PKK militants onboard.

Dler S. Mohammed 2022/05/21 17:48

A PKK vehicle destroyed by Turkish drone attack in Makhmour camp, May 21, 2022. (Photo: circulated in social media)

Iraq PKK Makhmour refugee camp Turkish drone Turkish-PKK conflict

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) –Turkish drones struck the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) refugee camp in the disputed town of Makhmour on Saturday.

According to Kurdistan 24’s correspondent in the area, the Turkish drone attack targeted a vehicle with PKK militants onboard.

Kurdistan 24 does not have additional information about the casualties or damages caused by the attack so far.

Makhmour is a town 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil. It hosts a camp of some 12,000 Kurdish refugees who fled Turkey to the Kurdistan Region in the mid-1990s. The camp receives regular assistance from the United Nations.

Ankara has reportedly complained to Baghdad about PKK activities in the area. Turkey claims the PKK gets its recruits from the Makhmour camp, which is administered by PKK armed militants.

Earlier on Saturday, two Turkish drones bombed a vehicle near the town of Chamchamal in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province, killing all five passengers, according to local sources.

The bombing took place in the village of Tw-taqal at the foothills of Khal Khalan. This is an area where security sources report that PKK is active. The PKK prevented the entry of firefighters into the area.

Much of the decades-long conflict between the PKK and Ankara has taken place in the

mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region, where border towns and their inhabitants are at risk of being targeted.

Turkish shelling in the border areas in the Duhok province, the Makhmour camp, as well as the Qandil Mountains has become commonplace since the peace process between the PKK and Ankara collapsed in 2015.

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

Turkey, the EU, and the US have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization.