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Kurdistan
An ambulance waiting outside the village of Bole on August 19, 2019 after a Turkish airstrike. Medical personnel could not retrieve the wounded due to Turkish jets still flying overhead. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish airstrikes left two people wounded in a village in the Sangasar town north of Sulaimani Monday.
"Fearing constant maneuvers from the warplanes spotted overhead, our people cannot rush to retrieve the wounded and take them to hospital," Abdulrahman Hassan told Rudaw English.
One local in the village of Bole said residents were at first too scared of the jets to tend to the wounded.
"Fearing constant maneuvers from the warplanes spotted overhead, our people cannot rush to retrieve the wounded and take them to hospital," Abdulrahman Hassan told Rudaw English.
Sangasar mayor Nahro Aabdulla said the bombings, which targeted apparent Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions, took place at around 9:30 in the morning. Another resident told Rudaw the ambulances were finally able to transport the injured to a hospital in Ranya around 12:00 pm.
Sangasar is 137 kilometers from Sulaimani.
Sangasar is 137 kilometers from Sulaimani.
A map showing Bole's location in the Kurdistan Region.
The PKK is an armed group that fights for greater political rights for Kurds in Turkey. The PKK and Turkey have fought for decades, leading to thousands of deaths, including civilians. The group is based in the Qandil Mountains along the Turkey-Iraq border.
Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes and ground operations against suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions inside the Kurdistan Region.
However, Hassan claims there are no PKK bases in the area.
"There is no PKK base near the village of Bole," said Hassan.
One of the villagers is critically wounded and the airstrikes led to fires in orchards and groves in the area, according to Hassan.
On June 27, four civilians were killed in Turkish airstrikes at the foot of the Qandil Mountains near the village of Kurtak in Sangasar.
The bombings came hours after the Turkish government removed three mayors from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) from office in the Kurdish cities of Diyarbakir, Van and Mardin due to alleged PKK ties. They have been replaced by government-appointed officials. Turkey arrested 418 people in the crackdown.
Turkey launched ‘Operation Claw’ in late May with the goal of removing the PKK from border areas in the Kurdistan Region.
Civilians are routinely caught in the crossfire of the Turkey-PKK conflict. Locals stormed a Turkish military base in the Duhok province in January after airstrikes killed six civilians.
Both Erbil and Baghdad have called on Ankara to halt its attacks and have demanded the PKK withdraw from their territory.
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