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Footage shows plumes of smoke billowing after a Turkish airstrike, suspected to have targeted a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) vehicle near the village of Babire, Duhok province, on August 20, 2019. Video submitted to Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Turkish airstrike hit what was alleged to be a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) vehicle near a Duhok village on Tuesday, local eyewitness told Rudaw, causing panic among the village’s few and fear-ridden remaining residents.
Bayar Tahir, a resident of the village of Babire in Duhok's Mangeshki sub-district, was at a village spring with other locals when they heard Turkish jets flying overhead at 10:30am.
"We were afraid [the jets would hit us] and left the spring to go back to the village,” Tahir told Rudaw.
On their return to Babire, Tahir said he saw two missiles being fired from the Turkish jet, at least one of which hit a PKK vehicle.
He also claimed to have witnessed three PKK guerillas being killed by the strike.
Orchards and groves belonging to locals were left destroyed, he added.
Graphic: Sarkawt Mohammed | Rudaw English, Maps4news
Mohammed Ismael, another resident of Babire, also told Rudaw that the Turkish airstrike targeted a PKK vehicle in the same location.
“This has caused much fear among the locals,” he said.
Mushtaq Ismat, director of the Mangeshk sub-district, confirmed the incident to Rudaw.
Despite there being no reported civilian casualties, the airstrike has stoked "fear in the area," "especially among those who were close to where the missile struck," Ismat said.
Babire has already been close to entirely evacuated by the village's original 40-50 families in the face of increased PKK-Turkey hostility, Tahir said, while its remaining villagers - 5 families' worth - return only in the summer months.
"Residents are tired. They want to pack up and leave the village," he explained.
Babire is left particularly vulnerable to casualties because of its remote location. In the event of a local being injured by airstrikes, the nearest emergency hospital is an hour away, Tahir added.
The PKK and Turkey have been locked in a four decade-long, often armed conflict, resulting in the death of roughly 40,000 people, including civilians. They are headquartered in the Qandil Mountains that run on the Turkey-Iraq-Iran border.
Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes and ground operations against suspected PKK positions inside the Kurdistan Region, with civilians routinely caught in their crossfire.
Military action in the area was stepped up further with Turkey’s launch of Operation Claw in late May. with the goal of removing the PKK from border areas in the Kurdistan Region.
On Monday, two civilians were injured in a Turkish airstrike in the village of Bole, in the north of Sulaimani province.
Four civilians were killed in Turkish airstrikes at the foot of the Qandil mountain range in the same province on June 27.
Both the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and federal government in Baghdad have repeatedly called on Ankara to cease its offensives, while also calling on the PKK to stop endangering civilians and leave Kurdistan Region territory.
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