ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A suspected Turkish airstrike on Friday targeted a mountain near Duhok’s Shiladze district, killing two civilians and wounding another.
Residents of the area told Rudaw’s Naif Ramadhan that the strike took place early Friday morning while the victims were in their groves and orchards near Gre Mountain in Shiladze.
The strikes killed Saeed Mubarak and Araz Faraj, and wounded Salih Mubarak, all three civilians.
According to Rudaw’s reporter on the ground, Salih Mubarak has been transferred to a hospital in Shiladze to receive treatment, while the bodies of Faraj and Mubarak were sent to the forensics medicine department in Amedi.
Media affiliated with The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) blamed Turkey for the attack.
Turkey frequently bombards the northern mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of targeting PKK fighters.
Tensions have escalated between Turkish forces and the PKK in Shiladze and Deralok in recent weeks. Clashes between the two sides forced the residents of four Deralok villages to evacuate out of fear for their lives.
Kamaran Osman, a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a human rights organization that monitors Turkey's operations in the Kurdistan Region, told Rudaw that since the start of the year, Turkey has launched 241 attacks in the Kurdistan Region.
The Turkish defense ministry has yet to comment on the attack.
Civilians are often caught in the crossfire of the conflict between Turkey and the PKK. Many families have been forced to flee their homes in the Kurdistan Region's villages because of the clashes, especially those in northern Duhok province near the border with Turkey, leaving entire villages empty. A Kurdistan Region parliamentary report published in 2020 said that the Turkey-PKK conflict has left over 500 villages empty across the Region.
