Turkish army bolsters positions in Kurdistan Region

ZAKHO, Kurdistan Region — The Turkish army has established five new outposts in the Kurdistan Region, the mayor of Darkar district in Zakho said on Monday.

Turkey has recently stepped up a military campaign targeting Kurdish rebels that has drawn condemnation from Iraqi officials.

Darkar mayor Zerevan Musa said Turkey flew in troops on helicopters and established the outposts on mountains near the villages of Sharanish and Banka, near the Turkish border. 

Musa added that the Turks have gone more than 30 kilometres deep into Iraqi territory, in different areas across the Kurdistan Region 

Several Turkish airstrikes have hit farms and other sites around Sharanish and Banka villages.

Video showed smoke from the airstrikes, and what from a distance appeared to be Turkish troops on a mountainside.

"We demand from both sides, the Turkish government and PKK militants, to keep their fight away from us and leave us alone. We have suffered enough throughout history," said local villager Qadir Sharanshi. 

Turkey launched an air and ground offensive into the border region this month in a campaign to root out the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara maintains has bases in the Kurdistan Region.

Five civilians have been killed in various airstrikes as part of Operation Claw-Eagle.

Turkey regularly carries out air and ground attacks against the PKK in the Region.

The offensives have emptied scores of villages in the border area.

Ankara says neither the Iraqi government nor the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have taken measures to combat the group.