Sarwar Qadir, a 43-year-old Peshmerga, met his death in the village of Nawdarok in Erbil’s Sidakan district at around 6:30 pm on Thursday while he was off-duty. His lifeless body was discovered the following morning.
"He came to us yesterday evening. We were planning a trip, and on the way back, he was hit by a plane. We thought the plane had hit a motorcycle. [Thursday] morning between 5:00 and 6:00, we went and brought the body back," Rostam Tahir, a relative of Qadir, told Rudaw on Friday.
Sidakan mayor Ihsan Chalabi said he believes Qadir was killed in a Turkish drone strike.
Many people attended his funeral, grieving the loss of their son and angry that they are unable to live peacefully on their own land.
"Let us be given another place and moved here. How long will the planes, artillery, burning, and killing last? God will not accept it," Juma Ahmad, a villager, told Rudaw.
"We cannot go back to our land. It is our country, our village, and our land, and we do not dare to go back to it," said Jamal Darwish, another villager.
Turkish forces frequently cross the border, carrying out air raids and ground operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been based in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains for four decades. The Turkish army has established numerous military outposts in northern Duhok province, and this summer it expects to complete a zone that Erdogan said would “permanently resolve” security issues along the border.
Civilians are all too often caught in the crossfire of the conflict. Hundreds of villages have been emptied as residents seek safety elsewhere.
“Unfortunately, our citizens are killed every year in Sari Zrazan and other places that have been rigged with TNT by the PKK. We have demanded that our citizens stay away from these places and put their lives ahead of grazing [their animals],” said Chalabi.
“The most dangerous places are those near the Turkish barracks, especially some places such as Robi and Rawal roads,” said Chalabi.