The US last week announced bounties collectively totaling up to $12 million for information leading to the capture of three senior PKK leaders: Murat Karayilan, Cemil Bayik, and Duran Kalkan.
“This has made the PKK show up less often,” Sarbast Akrayi, head of Kani Masi sub-district, told Rudaw English on Wednesday.
Kani Masi is located in Duhok province’s Amedi district on the Kurdistan Region’s border with Turkey.
With the PKK less active, Turkish bombardments have decreased, Akrayi explained.
Turkey frequently carries out airstrikes against alleged PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region. The country’s Ministry of Defence reported on Tuesday they have “neutralized” 57 “terrorists” in aerial operations in northern Iraq in the last four days. Turkish armed forces use the term “neutralized” to refer to those killed, wounded, or otherwise removed from the battlefield.
The Amedi district has always been a hotspot for conflict, both the decades-long PKK-Turkey conflict and Kurdish uprisings against the former Iraqi regime.
“Therefore, the people are used to such things,” Akrayi said of the reaction of local residents to the bombardments.
The most devastating period of the PKK-Turkey conflict in this area was between 2015 and 2017 when 4,000 acres of land were desolated, 26 villages were abandoned, and 18 houses were destroyed, Akrayi explained.
The people were left with an estimated 2.3 billion dinars ($1.9 million) in material losses, the official said.
There are 76 villages in the sub-district with a population of 10,000.
The PKK have not completely halted activities, however. Guerrilla forces attacked Turkish positions in Erbil province’s Sidakan sub-district early on Wednesday, which was followed by Turkish bombardment on the region, according to local mayor Ihsan Chalabi.
"Turkey bombarded Mount Del and borders of Khalifan, Siran, Shelkan, and Blasanan villages at 9:00 am, Wednesday, lasting for 45 minutes," he told Rudaw, adding that the attack was in response to a PKK strike half an hour earlier.
There were no reports of casualties or material losses.
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