The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) has given an interview to the Voice of America news agency (VoA) saying that Turkey has brought members of “terrorist and jihadist groups” to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) as allies in the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). This includes members of the Al-Nusra front.
VoA is the only news agency which has been able to report from the Turkish occupied area of the KRI in recent weeks.
Zagros Hiwa, spokesperson for the KCK, told VoA that PKK fighters say that they can hear soldiers shouting in Arabic in “the heat of battle”. The guerillas say that the jihadists are opening the way for the Turkish military to advance.
Abdulrahman Mustafa, the Syrian Turkmen leader of the pro-Turkish Syrian interim government announced on social platform X that the group was assisting Turkey in the war in northern Iraq.
Mustafa appears to have deleted the post, after journalists began to publicise it.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) spokesperson Saadi Ahmad Pira told VoA: “The forces that are coming to the Kurdistan Region today include more than 300 former terrorists of the ISIS era; I have photos and names.”
Last week, VOA published this video of several convoys of Turkish troops setting up military checkpoints in the Barwari Bala area of Duhok governorate:
Hashim Omar of Kashan village told VoA: “Turkey has not come in our interest. They are enemies. The villagers cannot do their jobs for fear of these forces and we are ready to be killed and attacked any minute.”
Over 15,000 Turkish soldiers, and hundreds of tanks have reportedly crossed into the KRI over the past week, along with hundreds of tanks and military vehicles. Turkish forces have established checkpoints across Northern Iraq and are stopping civilians and demanding IDs. The Turkish forces are coordinating with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iraqi federal government authorities.
The invasion follows president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Baghdad and Erbil in April 2024. Erdoğan obtained a green-light for its invasion, in return for lucrative concessions on oil, infrastructure and water given to the Iraqi Federal Government and KRG.
“We have learned through our relatives on the border that they have guerrillas with the Turkish forces and fight alongside them and sometimes guard them. In addition, they have [soldiers] who are Kurds and speak Kurdish,” Omar continued.
