The Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an international monitoring group, have released a new report detailing the civilian casualties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) caused by attacks by the Turkish and Iranian states between 1991-2024.
The CPT has been working in Iraqi Kurdistan with Kurdish shepherds and farmers affected by cross-border attacks, along with civil society activists and other groups facing discrimination and violence.
Turkey and Iran have been carrying out regular cross-border bombings and attacks since the 1980s, attacking the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other groups that operate in that region. These assaults have taken a heavy toll on people unconnected with these groups.
Since 1991, Turkish and Iranian cross-border raids have resulted in the killing of 425 civilians, and the injuring of 420. CPT documents 12 civilian deaths this year alone, and six civilian injuries.
Both the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have targeted built up areas during the period, damaging homes, schools and places of worship.
The risks are felt most acutely by those currently living under Turkish occupation, or who have their lives and livelihoods in the mountainous areas near the borders. These people are often subjected to bombings by drones, fighter planes, and artillery strikes. The attacks commonly go unreported and, as well as causing death, damage property and kill livestock.
The TAF are responsible for 83 percent of the civilian casualties inside Iraqi Kurdistan, while the IRGC are responsible for the remaining 17 percent.
The CPT pointed out that casualties from Turkish attacks have massively escalated “between 2018 and 2024, due to a rapid increase in [Turkish] military operations inside Iraqi Kurdistan that began in December 2017. These ‘Claw’ series of operations aim to create a buffer zone incorporating most of the 360-kilometer-long Iraq/Turkey border region.”
“To date, Turkey has constructed 74 military bases inside Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turkish military presence and operations have caused the displacement of thousands of people from at least 170 villages, with a further 602 villages at risk of displacement, while also severely disrupting local economies, livelihoods, and indigenous ways of life,” the CPT said.
The majority of these fatal attacks occurred when the victims were at home, or at work. The CPT pointed out that this underscores the devastating effects on civilian life.
An Iraqi Parliamentary Law of 2009 declared that people killed in these cross-border attacks should be considered ‘national martyrs’ and their families should receive financial assistance. However, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has failed to recognise 93 percent of those killed, and their families have not received compensation. Instead, the KRG is currently coordinating with the Turkish state over its cross-border attacks, and occupation of Northern Iraq.
