Turkish airstrike cuts electricity supply to Zakho villages

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Turkish airstrike targeting an alleged Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) vehicle cut off the electricity supply to two villages in Duhok’s Zakho district on Sunday night. 

The attack happened around 8:30pm, according to local Haji Ramadhan, who says strikes occur on a "daily basis."

"There is a lot of PKK activity in the area that was attacked," he said, adding "planes have not left the area and we cannot go and check for casualties."

“This is the second time in two weeks the Turkish military has bombed this area, they also attacked last week and cut off the electricity,” Dlsher Abdulstar, mayor of Batifa subdistrict told Rudaw’s Nasir Ali.

No villagers were hurt but houses sustained damage, according to the mayor. 

“We will be sending our teams to fix the electricity today,” he said.

The strike took place near the village of Banka Saru. The PKK has not reported any casualties.

Turkey launched renewed airstrikes in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories in mid-June, dubbed Operation Claw-Eagle. Said to target PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region, eight civilians have been killed in the strikes. The ground operation, Claw-Tiger, concluded in September.

A drone strike hit a vehicle belonging to the Shingal Protection Units (YBS), a PKK-affiliated Yazidi armed group, west of Sinune town in Shingal on November 8, according to Sinune Mayor Khudeda Chuke.

The PKK is a Kurdish armed group which has fought Ankara for decades for greater rights for the country’s Kurdish minority.

A staggering 504 villages have been emptied by Turkish and Iranian incursions into the Kurdistan Region since 1992, according to a new report by the Kurdistan Parliament. 

Only 15 out of 40 houses remain occupied in Banka Sar, Ramadhan told Rudaw. It is only one of two villages left inhabited in the Batifa subdistrict. 

Both Erbil and Baghdad have repeatedly called on Ankara to halt its attacks and have demanded the PKK cease using Kurdistan Region and Iraqi territory to launch attacks on Turkey.