Christian village deserted after Turkish airstrikes

ZAKHO, Kurdistan Region (K24) - Residents of the Assyrian-Christian village of Sharanish in Duhok Province, Kurdistan Region, have all left their homes after several Turkish airstrikes destroyed the village's electric and water distributors last week.

On Sunday evening, Turkish warplanes bombed Sharanish, home to 50 families that make up a total of 220 people. Although no one was killed or wounded, fearing the possibility of a deadly attack, villagers fled to the town of Zakho, some 30 kilometers west.

Sharanish is just 15 kilometers south and east of Iraq's border with Turkey, separated by a tributary of the Khabur river.

The air attacks were thought to be a part of intense Turkish air campaign against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in the Kurdistan Region as well as those inside Turkey itself. Turkey started the campaign after peace talks with the PKK collapsed in mid-2015.

Kurdish border guards report that the late night attack on the village continued for half an hour.

Amir Nissan, a villager in his 60s, said that he could hear three warplanes.

"The moment they attacked we had no more windows or doors. Our kids got scared and screamed. Everyone left the village. We, a few men stayed to protect our property," Nissan told a K24 reporter.

He added that the attacks also demolished the village's meeting hall nearby the church, which was not damaged.

Farhad Mahmood, administrator of Derkare, a sub-district of Zakho, said PKK guerrillas' presence in the area was affecting the local population. "Because Turks attack them, we also come under fire," he explained.

Mahmood added that dozens of the villages he administers do not receive necessary public services from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), due to continuous Turkish attacks and incursions that frequently result in infrastructural damage and have sometimes kill and injure civilians.

Last August, a Turkish airstrike eight civilians, including a pregnant woman in the village of Zargele, in northern Erbil Province, near the town of Rawandiz.

At the time, President of the Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani condemned the attack, demanding Turkish authorities restart negotiations with the outlawed PKK. Turkish authorities denied any civilian casualties and claimed that there was a PKK camp in the area.

(Reporting by Nimat Marounsi; Editing by Benjamin Kweskin)