ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Suspected Turkish warplanes heavily bombarded a village in the north of Duhok on Wednesday, with shrapnel from the shelling causing material damage to several houses in the area.
Alleged Turkish bombardment targeted Hirore village on Wednesday evening. Hirore’s chief, Azad Adib, told Rudaw's Naif Ramadan that this is “the first time” Turkey hits the area so intensely.
Adib claimed that Turkey had hit the village five times, targeting a civilian’s house and causing material damage.
No casualties were reported.
Turkey frequently bombards the Kurdistan Region on the grounds of targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters but the principal said they had never seen the fighters in the area.
Turkish forces and the PKK frequently clash in Hirore village.
Turkey has come under criticism from Baghdad, Erbil, Tehran, and the wider international community for violating Iraqi sovereignty, but Ankara continues to establish increasing numbers of bases and outposts in the mountains of Erbil and Duhok provinces.
Turkey says that its presence in the mountains of northern Iraq is aimed at cutting off to the path of members of the PKK, and to prevent them from crossing into and attacking Turkish security forces in the Kurdish areas of southeast Turkey.
Turkish warplanes bombarded a mountain near a village in Erbil’s Barzan vicinity, striking fear among students who were playing outside the area.
Last year, it launched the twin operations Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt in northern Duhok against the PKK, an armed group fighting for greater rights for Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization.
Artillery reportedly fired by the Turkish army destroyed 20 beehives belonging to a villager in the Kani Masi sub-district in Duhok in late January.
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