ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The establishment of five military bases by all-Kurdish Iraqi border guards in Zakho’s border areas with Turkey has reassured locals under threat from Turkish airstrikes, local officials have told Rudaw.
Turkey began air and ground military operations in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq's disputed territories in mid-June, with the stated aim of removing suspected Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets from the area. Five civilians have been killed in the operations.
The PKK is an armed group fighting for Kurdish political and cultural rights in Turkey. It has been clashing with Turkish forces inside and outside Turkey since 1984.
Zerevan Musa, mayor of Zakho’s Darkar subdistrict told Rudaw’s Hiwa Jamal that Turkey has hit Darkar and the nearby subdistrict of Batifa with nearly 700 bombs and 70 rockets between June 15 and July 4, according to data recorded by his office.
However, areas with Iraqi border guards are not being bombed, offering potential relief for weary villagers.
“The bombardment has dramatically decreased now compared to initial days, but it continues. The mobilization of [Iraqi] border guards in the last few days has relieved and assured people. Now some people go to their farms,” Batifa mayor Dilsher Abdulsattar told Rudaw on Sunday.
“We call for the mobilization of more [border guard] forces and the establishment of more points,” Musa said.
The Iraqi government has three brigades of all-Kurdish border guards, affiliated to Iraq’s interior ministry, in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok, Erbil and Sulaimani provinces. The Duhok brigade consists of 1,300 members, according to its commander, Dler Farzanda.
Duhok’s First Brigade mobilized tens of fighters to five strategic positions in Zakho on July 1. Ankara was informed of the mobilization in advance. It followed the visit of the head of the Iraqi border guard brigade Lt. Gen. Hamid Abdullah to the area on June 22 to investigate the aftermath of the Shildaze attack which killed four civilians.
Abdulsattar expressed thanks for the visit by the force for meeting affected locals, unlike the Iraqi government or the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Batifa has 27 villages bordering Turkey, 13 of which have been affected by recent bombardments. However, only Kashan village has been abandoned, according to Abdulsattar.
Darkar has 63 villages, 25 of which have been subject to Turkish bombardment, Musa said.
The Turkish presidency published a map to Twitter on Monday, claiming that they have set up 37 military bases in the Kurdistan Region so far. The map was later removed.
