Two civilians were killed and two others wounded in Turkish airstrikes on Friday in the Shiladze (Şêladizê) district of Iraqi Kurdistan’s northern city of Duhok, Roj News reported.
The deceased were identified as Saeed Mubarak Zebari, a 41-year-old Peshmerga, and Araz Faraj Haji, a 29-year-old employed as a doctor’s secretary, both married and from a nearby village. They, along with two other villagers, had gone to the mountain to gather beetroots when they became the target of Turkish airstrikes.
The Turkish military, which regards certain Kurdish groups in the area as threats, has frequently conducted ground operations and air strikes in northern Iraq, leading to casualties and displacements among the civilian population. Ankara has maintained numerous military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan over the past 25 years in its long-running conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
According to the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a violence reduction and human rights organisation in Iraq, the Turkish military has carried out 241 bombings and assaults in the Kurdistan Region since the beginning of the year, resulting in at least four civilian deaths. Notably, all civilian casualties from this year’s bombings were reported from the Shiladze district, indicating a significant focus of military activity in this area.