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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) released their conflicting number of fatalities on Monday afternoon, hours after Ankara announced a new military operation targeting the mountainous regions of northern Duhok, sparking renewed fear among locals.
The Turkish defense ministry claimed that 19 PKK fighters were "neutralized" in the first phase of the newly-launched operation, dubbed Claw-Lock, adding that four Turkish soldiers were also injured. Turkish officials use the term "neutralize" to imply surrenders, killings, or capturing.
The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the PKK, stated that 28 Turkish soldiers were killed and nine others were injured, reported media affiliated to the group, Roj News.
The new aerial and ground operation against suspected PKK positions in northern Duhok province was announced early on Monday, hours after Turkish bombardment targeted Shiladze.
The fresh bombardment has sparked concern among locals that this could start a new wave of displacement.
“People are trying to abandon this region because they can see that bombs drop just one kilometer or two kilometers from their homes," Iqbal Omer, a resident of Shiladze, told Rudaw’s Ayub Nasri on Sunday.
According to data from the Shiladze administration authorities, only seven out of 92 villages are still inhabited. The rest have been abandoned due to the conflict between the PKK and Turkey over the past decades.
The constant state of conflict has caused fear among local civilians, particularly children. “I am a Peshmerga soldier, I can bear the noise and sound of bombs, but a 10-year-old child cannot bear the sound of these bombings," said Jaafar Ramazan, a Peshmerga soldier from Shiladze.
According to the International Crisis Group, 1,047 fatalities have been incurred in Iraq, including civilians, PKK fighters, and state security forces since 2015.
More than 500 villages have been emptied in the Kurdistan Region over three decades of the Turkey-PKK conflict.
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