ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish civilian was injured in a Turkish bombardment near his village of Deshish in northern Duhok province on Tuesday.
“We were in the village when the bombardment started. One bomb hit the mountain and then another hit near the village and I was injured by it,” 20-year-old Bawar Ahmad told Rudaw’s Naif Ramazan from a hospital bed on Tuesday.
Ahmad was injured in the leg and was treated in hospital. He is the first civilian reported injured in Turkey’s latest operation in the Kurdistan Region.
Turkish armed forces launched Operations Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt on April 23, targeting alleged Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Duhok province. A goal of the operation is to establish a military base to block PKK movements between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey and Syria.
Most of the residents of Deshish village fled their homes last week after Turkish bombardments intensified in the area. This is the third village affected by Turkey’s military operations.
Ahmed’s father said just four families are still living in Deshish. “When it comes to damage, thankfully there have been no casualties. However damage has been done to people’s land and people are afraid to take care of their lands,” said Ahmad Mohammed.
This year, the Kurdistan Region has seen more deadly clashes in the conflict with the PKK than Turkey, according to figures compiled by the International Crisis Group, which tracks the conflict. In the first four months of 2021, there have been 67 fatalities, 55 of them (or 82 percent) in the Kurdistan Region. The dead are 19 Turkish soldiers, 34 PKK fighters, and two civilians.
Since the decades-long Turkey-PKK conflict was reignited in 2015 following the collapse of peace efforts, 5,372 people have been killed, 773 of them (or about 15 percent) in the Kurdistan Region, including 43 civilians.
The PKK is an armed group fighting for increased rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority, and has bases in the Kurdistan Region's mountains. It is regarded as a terrorist organization by Ankara.
