Peshmerga officer martyred as PKK launches new attack against Kurdistan Region forces

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – At least one Peshmerga was martyred as a result of an attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Sunday night at a checkpoint in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.

The attack occurred as a group of PKK militants crossed a checkpoint manned by Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces in Amedi’s Derish village and opened fire on the stationed Peshmerga forces, resulting in one death among them, according to an informed source in the area.

The clashes between the forces took an hour before it settled down, the source told Kurdistan 24.

The latest attack by the group came after a convoy of Kurdistan Region Peshmerga forces came under attack by PKK militants in the Chamalke district in Duhok province in early November following a roadside bomb that exploded next to the KRG forces. The attack resulted in one death and three injuries.

The incident drew widespread condemnation from both local and international actors accusing the group of violating the sovereignty of Iraq and deteriorating the “stability of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.”

So far, two Peshmerga fighters have been killed and several wounded as a result of the group’s recent attacks on the Kurdistan Region’s forces.

The PKK, headquartered in the Kurdistan Region’s Zagros Mountains, has been fighting a decades-long conflict against Ankara over Kurdish rights in Turkey that has led to tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. Rural residents and the local environment continue to suffer from ongoing clashes, including multiple civilian fatalities and other casualties.

“The PKK presence inside Kurdistan Region’s territories and the armed clashes with the Turkish army have become a cause of great destruction for the people living in those areas,” Ali Tatar, the governor of Duhok province, which has witnessed causalities and evacuation in its villages due to PKK-Turkey clashes in its surrounding areas.

“Our people have grown tired,” Tatar added.

On Saturday, security forces found three citizens’ bodies, who died due to Turkish shelling nine days ago, targeting the Deraluk subdistrict of Duhok, a local police source confirmed to Kurdistan 24. The victims were reportedly near their villages behind the Rashafa valley, north of the district, where they were hunting.

Although the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has repeatedly asked the PKK and the Turkish government to take their fight elsewhere, tensions between the KRG and the PKK have recently reached new levels to the point of an actual armed conflict.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany