The airstrikes against PKK positions took place at around 7pm in Qandil, in the far north of the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil province. Turkey’s defense ministry claimed later that evening to have “neutralized” two PKK guerillas in the strikes.
“As the result of coordinated activities between Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] and the National Intelligence Organization [MIT] in northern Iraq’s Qandil region, [Turkish] air operations neutralized two members of the separatist terrorist organization of the PKK,” read a statement from the defense ministry on Twitter.
Ankara uses the word neutralized to refer to those killed, wounded, or otherwise removed from the battlefield.
Rudaw spoke to two local sources in the area who claimed two PKK fighters were killed in the airstrike.
One of the sources, who for fear of risk to his personal safety did not want to be named, said some PKK members came down from the nearby mountains to collect the remains of their fighters killed by one of the strikes.
Shakhawan Warti, head of Qasre sub-district in Choman district, told Rudaw that Turkish warplanes bombarded Razwelka, Qalat, and Wasanyan villages in the Balayan Valley “on three consecutive occasions which led to blackout in these villages.”
The airstrike also caused the “blockage of Balayan-Qasre main road, destruction of the houses of some villages due to fragments [of the bombs],” he said.
The PKK-affiliated Roj News also reported the damage caused by the airstrikes, including the burning of land in the area and the partial destruction of a mosque - confirmed by Warti.
The PKK is yet to confirm the bombardments or any resulting losses.
Turkey and the PKK have been in a sometimes-armed conflict for nearly four decades, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 40,000 people, including civilians.
The group is headquartered in the Kurdistan Region’s Qandil Mountains, on the Turkey-Iraq-Iran border.
Turkey has recently intensified its air operations against the Kurdish group, announcing the launch of Operation Claw in late May. Currently in its third phase, the operation is targetting alleged PKK positions in and around Sinat and Haftanin in the Kurdistan Region province of Duhok.
The Turkish defense ministry claimed in a tweet early on Saturday to have “neutralized” two PKK fighters in a separate operation in the Kurdistan Region, “in the framework of Operation Claw.”
