As the military operation that was launched by the Turkish Armed Forces on Friday 23 April in Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) zones mainly covering the Zap, Avaşin, Basyan, Qandil, and Gara regions (also known as “Medya Defence Zones”) continues, there have been fierce clashes between the Turkish armed forces and People’s Defense Forces (HPG).
According to MA, it was claimed that during the attack of HPG forces on the TAF base in the Behdînan 4 Turkish soldiers lost their lives and many soldiers were also wounded.
Although no official statement has been made so far regarding the target of the operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces, according to information obtained from local sources, Turkey is aiming to control 100kms, to control the area which starts from the region between Uludere in Şırnak (Sirnex) and Çukurca in Hakkari (Colemerg) up to Metîna, Zap and Avaşîn regions where the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party) forces are active. The Turkish Army has deployed to 40 different bases both previously unused bases and newly established bases with the support of the KDP and aims to control areas that are presently under the control of the PKK.
The peshmerga sources interviewed said that the main purpose of Turkey, which aims to take over 100 kilometers, is to control the whole of the Federated Kurdistan Region. It was also reported that many soldiers lost their lives and many were wounded in three regions where the conflict was intensified, despite the Turkish military not announcing it.
The people of the region said that they have witnessed the funerals of at least 60-70 soldiers and many wounded soldiers have being taken to hospitals at Geliyê Zaxo, Bamernê Logistics, and Airport military bases. Again, according to the information obtained from the peshmerga sources in the region, 5 Skorsky type helicopters that belong to TAF have been hit by the HPG fighters while landing. It was also claimed that 9 soldiers, who were landed in the Qela Bedewê region of Zap have been shot by an Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SİHA) during the first day of the operation.
It was alleged that after the Garê operation, in which the TAF was forced to retreat, about a thousand specially trained members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were brought to the military base in Geliyê Zaxo. Those FSA members who were specially trained by SADAT that established its first base in Duhok city of Federated Kurdistan in 2017, are paid a monthly salary of 3 thousand dollars to fight there.
(SADAT is known as a military contracting company of Turkey that has been functioning as a training and logistical hub for jihadists in Turkey, Syria, Libya, and other countries.)
In addition, in January 2021, it is claimed that Turkey deployed more than 3 thousand FSA members from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and Chechnya at their bases in Kanîmasî, Amediye, Bamernê, Qesrê, and Sidekan to “fight the PKK”.
Speaking about the operation, the director of Kanîmasî Town in Duhok’s Amediye district, Serbest Sabri, said that the TAF could only settle in Kestê and Dirarê hills until now. Sabri stated that the region has been continuously bombed from air and land, and bombardment caused damage to a thousand acres of land in the Berwarî Bala region.
“The agriculture and animal husbandry can not be worked on now, vineyards and orchards were damaged in the fires caused by the bombardment, locals are very angry that their lands are bombed by Turkey”
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