ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Five suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed when a Turkish warplane attacked their vehicle in northeast Duhok near the Turkish border on Sunday morning.
Turkey’s defense ministry released a statement on Sunday claiming its air force had “neutralized” five PKK fighters.
The People’s Defence Forces (HPG) – the PKK’s armed wing – is yet to issue a statement on the incident.
A local farmer, who asked to remain anonymous, told Rudaw a warplane had circled the village of Bee in the Bari Gari district northeast of Duhok city for around 10 minutes before striking a “white vehicle”.
Residents of the district fled their homes, fearing jets may return for further strikes, he said.
“We are now heading back to the village in order to put out the fire that resulted from the Turkish bombardments,” the farmer told Rudaw. He was not aware of any civilian casualties.
The village of Bee was evacuated in 1988 during a period of heavy fighting between the PKK and Turkish forces. However, locals have continued to return to the area to use its surrounding farmland.
Turkey’s defense ministry recently announced the third phase of Operation Claw in the Kurdistan Region’s northern Sinat and Haftanin regions near the Turkish border. The first and second phases were conducted in Khakurk region, also near the border.
Turkey claims to have “neutralized” hundreds of PKK fighters since late May.
Several senior PKK leaders have been killed this year in Turkish airstrikes on areas of northern Iraq.
Helin Halana, also known as Layla Karabash, was killed in an airstrike on August 20 in Qandil, according to an HPG statement published by the PKK-affiliated Roj News.
Diyar Ghareeb, another senior PKK official, was killed alongside two others in a Turkish airstrike on the Qandil Mountains on July 5, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) confirmed in a statement on July 7.
On July 17, the PKK confirmed the death of KCK spokesperson Serhat Amanos Varto alongside four other members.
The PKK and Turkish state have been locked in a decades-long conflict resulting in the death of roughly 40,000 people, including civilians.
They reached a ceasefire deal in 2013 which lasted more than two years, before deadly fighting resumed in the Kurdish provinces of east and southeast Turkey.
Some 4,551 people have been killed since the peace process collapsed on July 20, 2015, according to the most recent figures from the International Crisis Group (ICG).
