Turkey bombs Makhmour camp causing material damage

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish bombardment targeted a refugee camp in northern Iraq’s Makhmour early Friday morning resulting in material losses, a source from the camp told Rudaw.

“At around 8:20 am, today [Friday] Turkish airplanes hit an empty house in Makhmour camp,” the source, who preferred to stay anonymous, said. No casualties were reported, they added.

Media affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Roj News also reported the attack saying the attack shattered the windows of some houses and damaged the houses of some civilians.

Makhmour camp hosts more than 12,000 Kurdish refugees who fled persecution by the Turkish state, mainly in the 1990s. It is located in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.

Turkey has carried out airstrikes against the camp in recent months. On June 5, a Turkish airstrike targeted the camp, killing three people, a Peshmerga commander told Rudaw.

Ankara believes the camp has close ties with the PKK, an armed Kurdish group that is on Turkey’s terror list. The PKK, which fights for greater rights for Kurds in Turkey, has its headquarters in the Kurdistan Region’s Qandil mountains.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told state-owned TRT last month that their next target after Qandil is Makhmour. "Makhmour is almost the incubation nest of Qandil. This brood nest is flourishing in the city centre. If we do not go after this, this brood nest will continue to produce,” he said. "We care about Makhmour as much as Qandil."