ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish forces are now less than three kilometers from the center of a village in Duhok’s Amedi district, a mayor told Rudaw on Thursday, saying troops were dropped into the area during a bombardment on Wednesday.
“An intense bombardment was carried out last night until early morning. Turkish forces were dropped into an area less than three kilometers away from the center of [Zinare Kesta] village,” Sarbast Sabri, the mayor of Kani Masi sub-district, told Rudaw’s Nasir Ali on Thursday.
The area is an important area for grazing livestock, he added, saying it has “complicated the situation for the people in the area.”
No one was killed in Wednesday’s bombardments but locals are scared, said the mayor.
Villagers elsewhere in the district have told Rudaw they are terrified to leave their homes, and are unable to take their livestock to the nearby mountains, following recent Turkish attacks.
On April 23, Ankara launched a new cross-border military offensive against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), dubbed Operation Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt. Several villages in the border area of Metina were bombed by Turkish forces.
The PKK, which has headquarters in the Kurdistan Region’s Qandil mountains, is a Kurdish armed group which has fought the Turkish state for the increased rights of Turkey’s Kurds for decades.
More than 500 villages in the Kurdistan Region have been emptied due to the Turkey-PKK conflict, according to a report from the Kurdistan parliament.
Turkey launched two domestic operations against the PKK in the southeastern provinces of Sirnak and Hakkari on Thursday, the interior ministry said, adding the operations are linked to the recent offensive against the group in the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey has claimed that tens of PKK fighters have been “neutralized” during both operations in Duhok province. The Turkish government and affiliated media use the word “neutralize” to denote death, injury, or capture of its adversaries.
The defense ministry announced the death of one Turkish soldier and the injury of two others on Wednesday.
PKK media on Wednesday said five Turkish soldiers were "punished," which could denote death, injury, or capture.
