Turkish airstrikes hit village near Duhok province's Akre town

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish aircraft struck a village in the vicinity of Akre town, Duhok province around noon on Wednesday, confirmed a local official. Casualties are not yet known.

"At 11am and 12pm, the Turkish planes twice bombed the village of Kavilka," Shaaban Khalil, mayor of Dinarta, the sub-district the village is located in, told Rudaw. "Since the villages are remote and there are no telephone lines there, we do not know of any damages yet."

Dinarta has previously been hit by Turkish airstrikes targeting suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases in the region.

The mayor said "the village has already been emptied, but villagers constantly move around it working on their groves and orchards."

"These airstrikes have sparked panic among other villages in our area," he added.

The PKK, an armed Kurdish group fighting for greater cultural and political rights in Turkey, is headquartered in the Kurdistan Region’s Qandil mountains. 

Turkey has launched air and ground operations against the PKK within the Kurdistan Region borders in mid-June. At least seven civilians have been killed by Turkey during the operation.

Reporting by Nasir Ali