Turkish air strikes hit villages in northern Iraq
Shafaq News/ Turkish aircraft conducted airstrikes on Monday evening, targeting villages in Al-Amadiya district of Duhok governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan.
According to a government source, "Turkish aircraft carried out air raids on locations affiliated with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) elements in the Al-Amadiya district area north of Duhok.”
The source added that "the attacks targeted near the village of Spindari on the slopes of Mount Kara, and shortly after about five minutes, the village of Sarkli in the Nahla area on the slopes of Mount Matin was subjected to bombardment," noting that "the losses resulting from the bombing have not been determined yet."
It is noteworthy that Areas in Al-Amadiyah and some areas of the Kurdistan Region are subjected to almost daily airstrikes, targeting PKK elements and leaders present there.
The Turkish Armed Forces have been conducting cross-border military operations against the PKK in Northern Iraq since the 1980s.
In July 2015, a two-and-a-half year-long ceasefire broke down, and the conflict between Ankara and militants of the PKK – recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US, Russia, and the European Union – entered one of its deadliest chapters in nearly four decades.
Since that date, the conflict has progressed through several phases. Between roughly 2015 and 2017, the violence devastated communities in some urban centers of Turkiye's majority Kurdish southeast and – at times – struck into the heart of the country's largest metropolitan centers. From 2017 onward, the fighting moved into rural areas of Turkiye's southeast.
As the Turkish military pushed more militants out of Turkiye, by 2019, the conflict's concentration shifted to northern Iraq and northern Syria, where the Turkish army has established several military bases at strategic points in the Matin mountain range, citing the expulsion of Kurdistan Workers' Party militants as justification.
