Turkey intensifies airstrikes on PKK in Qandil

Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- Turkey has resumed its airstrikes on the bases of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, targeting many Kurdish majority villages on Monday, a Rudaw correspondent reports.

Rudaw's Bakhtiyar Qadir said Turkish warplanes flew over the area where he was for 10 minutes and then launched airstrikes at 11:45pm on Monday on the outskirts of the Qandil Mountains and hit the villages of Lewzha, Bole, Kurtak, and Komutan in Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

Qadir reports that civilians in Iraqi Kurdistan Region live in fear of renewed airstrikes.

In recent weeks, the Qandil airstrikes have devastated more than just the PKK. Hundreds of villagers have lost farmland and property and many were forced to evacuate their homes.

Witnesses told Rudaw the Turkish government has also intensified its air power near Amedi town in the Kurdistan region's Duhok province.

Speaking at a news conference in Ankara on Monday, the day after an attack by PKK left 16 Turkish soldiers dead, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, "These mountains will be cleansed of terrorists. Whatever happens, they will be cleansed." 

The PKK attack was the deadliest since the Kurdish resistance movement renewed its armed campaign at the end of July.

"The mountains, plains, plateaus and cities of this country will not be abandoned to the terrorists," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the Anadolu Agency.

On Sunday, 16 Turkish soldiers were killed in the Kurdish southeast by roadside bombs which Ankara has blamed on the PKK. The attack took place in the town of Daglica in Yuksekova district on Sunday evening. The bombs reportedly went off near two Turkish military vehicles carrying soldiers.

Turkey and the PKK have been locked in a three-decade conflict in which some 40,000 people have been killed. The conflict was re-ignited in June, after the PKK claimed responsibility for the killing of two Turkish policemen.

The resumption of hostilities ended a peace process between PKK and Ankara forged in 2013.