Turkey bombards vicinity of Barzan school as students play outside

Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Turkish warplane bombarded a mountain near a village in Barzan, Erbil province on Monday without causing material damage or loss of life. However, the bombardment caused fear among students who were playing outside at the time, the principal told Rudaw English. 

Footage exclusively submitted to Rudaw shows smoke rising from a spot on Mount Balnda targeted by a Turkish warplane. The targeted area is only a few kilometres away from Wlatzheri School for Girls in the Barzan area. Students, who were playing in the yard, were terrified by the bombardment.

“When I visited the students who were in the class, they were laying down. It looked like a wake [due to crying]… as it had affected the students so much. I had to send students home early,” Ayaz Khalid, principal of the school, told Rudaw English later in the day.

Turkey frequently bombards the Kurdistan Region on the grounds of targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters but the principal said they had never seen the fighters in the area, suspecting that Turkey’s aim is to prevent the residents of the area from visiting the mountain for picking up natural plants. “Yesterday, some of our people were collecting natural plants there,” Khalid added.

Wlatzheri is affiliated to Mergasor district. Ghafour Ahmed, the district's mayor, told Rudaw that the bombardment was carried out by a Turkish warplane, adding that the targeted spot is near a water project in Balnda village. Ahmed denied PKK presence in the area. 

Turkish officials have said several times that they target only PKK fighters, and not civilians. 

Ankara launched two military campaigns against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region in April last year. It also launched another operation on the Syria-Iraq border earlier this year. The Turkish army is currently engaged in a series of operations at home in Kurdish areas.