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In the ongoing cross-border operation aiming to hit Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets, Turkey on 19th May launched another offensive, but this time, not with soldiers, but with large explosive devices dropped from helicopters filled with Ammonium Nitrate chemicals, reports ANF.
Kurdish fighters found the unexploded ordnance at a battle site called Little Cilo located in the Zap region of Iraqi Kurdistan, ANF cameras were there to record the extraordinary discovery.
Little Cilo is one of the most critical strategical zones where Kurdish fighters have been responding to Turkish armed forces attacks and who in turn have been intensely bombing the region for the past 40 days in an attempt to gain access to the PKK’s war tunnels.
It can be clearly seen on the casing of the unexploded ordnance “MKE Type, MOD 203, 40 Lb Ammonium Nitrate.”
Ammonium Nitrate gives off toxic gasses such as nitrogen oxides and ammonia gas which can be lethal and have lasting negative impacts on survivors and has been used in such bombings as the recent massive explosion in Beirut.
Some political analysts contend that these types of explosive bombs are being used in the conflict in Iraqi Kurdistan with the aim of spreading toxic nitrogen oxide and ammonia gases in the tunnels being used by the Kurdish fighters.
“They wanted to drop this into the tunnel from the upper ventilation. We have not been able to identify what this explosive is. They wanted to drop this into the tunnels with the ropes slung from the Sikorsky [helicopters]. But it did not explode and they did not achieve a result,” said Erîş Andok, a Kurdish fighter, who was at the scene where the bomb was dropped.
Sharing further information regarding the unexploded ordnance they discovered, he said: “It was wrapped around with a detonating cord, which detonates the explosive as soon as it lands on the ground. But this one did not detonate even after it fell on the ground.”
