The establishment of five military bases by all-Kurdish Iraqi border guards in Zakho’s border areas with Turkey has reassured locals under threat from Turkish airstrikes, local officials have told Rudaw.
Turkey began air and ground military operations in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq’s disputed territories in mid-June, with the stated aim of removing suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets from the area. Five civilians have been killed in the operations.
The PKK is an armed group fighting for Kurdish political and cultural rights in Turkey. It has been clashing with Turkish forces inside and outside Turkey since 1984.
Zerevan Musa, mayor of Zakho’s Darkar sub-district said that Turkey has hit Darkar and the nearby subdistrict of Batifa with nearly 700 bombs and 70 rockets between June 15 and July 4, according to data recorded by his office.
However, areas with Iraqi border guards are not being bombed, offering potential relief for weary villagers.
“The bombardment has dramatically decreased now compared to initial days, but it continues. The mobilization of [Iraqi] border guards in the last few days has relieved and assured people. Now some people go to their farms,” Batifa mayor Dilsher Abdulsattar said.
“We call for the mobilization of more [border guard] forces and the establishment of more points,” Musa said.
