Turkey Bombs Iraqi Kurdistan Villages amid Ongoing Incursions

The airstrikes targeted several border villages in the autonomous region in northern Iraq as a military campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is underway. 

A local source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Maalomah news agency that the Turkish warplanes struck villages located on the slopes of Mount Matin in the Amadiya district of Duhok province on Monday, reported Press TV. 

The air raids caused serious damages to the houses in the targeted areas, the local source maintained. 

The strikes follow a Turkish drone crashing in Qaladze town north of Sulaymaniyah, a major city of the Kurdistan region. 

Turkey's military has been involved in operations against the terrorist organization. In April Operation Claw-Lock was launched targeting the hideouts of PKK terrorists in Iraq’s northern Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan areas. 

The PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Ankara and has been engaged in attacks on the Turkish forces since the early 1980s. So far magor battles were fought between the two sides. 

A landmark ceasefire was announced in 2013 by the two sides, bringing calm to the Turkish borders with Iraq and Syria. However the group unilaterally ended the truce in November 2015, blaming the move on Turkey for its force amassment on the border and resumed airstrikes by the Turkish air force. Turkey said that the group reorganized during the two years of ceasefire. 

Ankara has in prison the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan who was captured in 1999 after years of intelligence work.