Turkish warplanes bomb several areas in Kurdistan Region
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Turkish warplanes bombed the peak of Mount Jasusani in the Qandil mountain range near the village of Zharawa in Pishdar District, according to a Kurdistan24 reporter at the scene.
Meanwhile, another Kurdistan24 reporter noted that the village of Galala in Mawat District has been bombed, and its residents have reported damage to their homes.
Kamaran Hassan, the Governor of Mawat, told Kurdistan24 “At 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, [Turkish] warplanes bombed the village of Ziono, and no casualties were recorded."
Turkey has stepped up drone strikes in Syria and the Kurdistan Region after 12 of its soldiers were killed last December in clashes with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has clandestine hideouts and bases in the Region.
The air and drone strikes have become a normality in the Kurdistan Region, which houses several Turkish military bases per a security agreement with the Kurdish government.
Swiftly following the PKK attacks in December, the Turks launched a counterattack in the Kurdistan Region as part of its “Operation Claw-Lock,” and claimed that 30 PKK fighters were “neutralized.”
Yet Turkey does not distinguish between the PKK and SDF, considering the latter to be an offshoot of the PKK. Thus, it also retaliated by launching a massive drone and airstrike campaign in northeastern Syria in the same month, which killed eight civilians and injured 18 others.
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Moreover, this latest round of airstrikes comes as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Istanbul on Saturday and met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, where the two sides are working towards solving a stalemate on the pending delivery of 40 US F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
Aside from its reliance on fighter jets to combat the PKK, Turkey heavily relies on its advanced drone-making industry in its fight against the militant group. Notably, its Bayraktar TB2 drone has received global acclaim per its effectiveness as deployed by Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Editing by Dastan Muwaffaq