ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish warplanes and artillery struck several villages in the Duhok subdistrict of Kani Masi on Tuesday, locals have told Rudaw.
Kani Masi is located in the Amedi region of Duhok province, near the border with Turkey.
Six villages were hit on Tuesday, including the villages of Razik, Baze and Chaqala, Kani Masi Mayor, Sarbast Sabri told Rudaw. No one was killed, he added.
"These bombings have been ongoing since yesterday. They have caused massive material damages to groves and orchards, burning a large number of trees," Sabri told Rudaw's Sangar Abdulrahman.
Kani Masi has been hit by numerous Turkish airstrikes in recent months.
Footage submitted to Rudaw by local villager Abdulsalam Salih shows plumes of smoke billowing onto the sky from behind the village of Razik.
"This place which is targeted is just two kilometers from the center of Amedi," Salih says, adding the area was struck twice "around 9:30 and 10:30 am" and set a mountain side ablaze.
Salih, who is from the nearby village of Ur, told Rudaw English the repeated airstrikes have instilled fear in locals.
“Relentless airstrikes are not allowing villagers to tend to their farmland at the time that they have to harvest their products..this is a major financial issue..the only source of livelihoods is their farmlands,” he added.
Turkey launched renewed airstrikes in the Kurdistan Region in mid-June, dubbed Operation Claw-Eagle. Said to target Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) positions in the Kurdistan Region, eight civilians have been killed in the operation. The ground operation, Claw-Tiger, concluded on Sunday.
The PKK is a Kurdish armed group which was 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.
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.
