Unarmed civilians killed in Turkish strikes on northern Iraq

Aftermath of a Turkish airstrike against Zergele village in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region on August 1, 2015. (© Firat news agency)

Press TV – August 8, 2015

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has dismissed Ankara’s claims that its attacks targeted positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, saying unarmed civilians have fallen victim to the raids.

The HDP, in a statement released on Friday, said Turkish fighter jets pounded Zergele village in the remote and far-flung Qandil Mountain of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq earlier this month, arguing that the area is populated by civilians contrary to the Turkish government’s allegations that the warplanes hit a PKK training base there.

“Those who lost their lives due to the bombing were civilians and unarmed people. The responsibility of the airstrike that resulted in the massacre of civilians rests with Ankara,” the statement noted.

On August 1, at least nine civilians lost their lives and 15 others sustained injuries, when Turkish military aircraft struck Zergele village.

“Two people initially lost their lives in the airstrikes. Turkish jets later bombed the villagers that had gone to the scene, leaving seven more people dead. Turkey is targeting Kurds. All the people living here, and all those killed in the strikes, were civilians and villagers,” Suleyman Nebi Boki, a Zergele resident, said.

Another villager, Feqi Muhammed, said, “There were six houses in this area, and all of them have been destroyed. The people targeted are innocent civilians. The Turkish government is targeting Kurdish villagers in place of PKK fighters.”

Meanwhile, Turkish military has denied allegations that the country’s jets bombarded civilians in Zergele.

Aftermath of a Turkish airstrike against Zergele village in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region on August 1, 2015. (© Firat news agency)

On August 6, Selahattin Demirtas, the HDP’s co-chair, called on the international community to censure Ankara’s new “unjust war” on Kurds, accusing the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of using the so-called anti-ISIL fight as a cover to pursue its main goal of targeting the PKK and undermining the HDP.

Turkey recently launched airstrikes against purported ISIL targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq, after a deadly bomb attack attributed to ISIL Takfiris left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc, across the border from the northern Syrian town of Kobani.

A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared as null by PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group, narrowing chances of the two sides reaching a deal in the near future.

The PKK had been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.