ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish bombardments in the Barzan area this week sparked a fire that has burned for days, destroying farmlands and killing wild animals, according to local officials. 

Turkey dropped bombs on a hillside near Lere village, in the Sherwan Mazin subdistrict of Barzan, 90 kilometres northeast of Erbil, on Friday, according to villagers and local officials who said on Wednesday the fire is still burning because it is a rugged area. 

“The vicinity of the village has been burning for five days. The fire has not been extinguished because firefighting vehicles cannot access the area,” Ajeel Adil, mukhtar (chieftan) of Sherwan Mazin, told Rudaw English. Turkey bombs the area almost on a daily basis, he added. 

Turkey launched a new offensive in the Kurdistan Region on June 15, with the stated aim of removing Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters from its borders with the Region. Residents and wildlife of the mountains have borne the brunt of the campaign, however. 

“Almost everything is gone,” Omer Abd Ham, mukhtar of Lere village, told Rudaw English.

“The valley behind the village has been burnt. At least two mountain goats have been burnt in addition to the burning of trees. The loss is very big, costing millions of dinars,” he said. 

Photographs taken over the past few days and submitted to Rudaw show scorched bee hives, smoldering trees, and two dead animals, possibly mountain goats or bezoar ibex. The animals appear to have burn marks on their legs. 

Mukhtar Ham criticized the government for “not doing anything to extinguish the fire. The forest rangers came and sat down under some trees without trying to extinguish the fire. We kicked them out of the area.”

Satellite imagery shows a blackened area above the village, stretching at least two kilometres long. Villagers used to use this area for grazing their livestock, but now they do not know where they will bring their animals, said the mukhtar, calling on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to compensate them. 

Turkey’s new offensive has been focused on areas in Duhok province’s Zakho region. At least five civilians have been killed there and several villages have been abandoned under the bombardment. 

Several civilians from one family were injured by Turkish drones in late June in Sulaimani province's Kuna Masi resort. Turkey has not confirmed it carried out the attack, which killed an Iranian Kurdish fighter. Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Turkey in a report on Wednesday for failing to take "adequate precautions" to minimize civilian harm in the attack.  

“The Turkish military strike on opposition fighters in a resort area seriously injured several civilians and could have harmed many more,” said Belkis Wille, the organization’s senior crisis and conflict researcher. “While the fighters were wrong to put the civilians at risk, Turkey also needs to take all practical precautions to limit harm to civilians.”  

Matin Mohammed, who lives in Lere and took some photos, told Rudaw English that the fire also killed many birds and bees. 

Gunde Lere Facebook page, administered by locals, reported that the fire has damaged most of the environment of the area.

Haji Abd, another villager, has 300 goats. “Now I will have trouble grazing them because almost everywhere is burnt,” he told Rudaw English.

These hillsides are restricted areas because of the PKK-Turkey conflict, but Abd said they would get permission from Turkish military bases to graze their animals.

Turkish bombs frequently spark forest fires that have devastated the Kurdistan Region’s mountains. A 2018 study found 2.2 million acres of forest has been lost, partially due to Turkish and Iranian artillery fire.
 
These bombardments and airstrikes “will destroy the natural resources and ecosystems in the whole region,” said environmentalist Korsh Ararat, warning that Turkey will also feel the effects. In “nature there is no border or boundary.”

Photos by: Matin Haji, Chawshin Haji and Dindar Mohammed