The bombardments have caused a fire in the forests of Mount Gara, burning hundreds of dunams of land. Ibrahim Hassan, a farmer from a nearby village, claims to have lost 10 dunams of farmland due to the ongoing Turkey-PKK clashes in recent years.
“We do not dare visit our old village. It is as cool and beautiful as a resort,” Hassan told Rudaw’s Naif Ramadhan, “Now we cannot even go to visit.”
Security sources from Amedi claim that at least two TNT explosions have occurred near the district over the past week, in addition to two artillery shells landing in Guharz village including one inside the home of a civilian.
“I thought it was a bomb at first. I knew it did not directly hit the house. It created a fog. Once the dust and fog were cleared, I knew it was a shell. This is very dangerous, you never know when one might hit you on the head,” said Abdulwahab Ibrahim, a villager.
In April last year, Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock with the goal of targeting PKK positions in Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan areas in northern Duhok province. The operation, according to Ankara, aims to remove the PKK from the bordering areas and cut off its access to mainland Turkey.
“We made all those sacrifices so that one day we can live in peace, not for you to come now and claim to liberate the area. The area is already thriving. Why don’t you allow our villages to be prosperous? Why don’t you allow services to reach our villages,” decried Duhok Governor Ali Tatar.
Ankara has in the past few years intensified its campaign to eliminate the presence of PKK fighters around its borders, launching several operations in the Kurdistan Region as well as Syria where it claims to target alleged proxies of the group.
Turkey has been blamed for several drone attacks in the Region and northeast Syria (Rojava) which claimed the lives of many civilians and Kurdish fighters.
