Turkish warplanes strike border areas in Erbil and Al-Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region

Shafaq News/ Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on border areas in Erbil and Al-Sulaymaniyah governorates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, according to Kamiran Osman, head of the Human Rights Department at the US-based organization Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

Osman told Shafaq News Agency that the strikes occurred in the early hours of Tuesday, with Turkish jets targeting the Baski Beryan area three times and hitting the village of Gonda Zor once in the Palkayti border region of Erbil's Choman district.

"Approximately an hour later, the Turkish aircraft bombed the Barzot and Kalawa mountains near the village of Kalala in the Mawat district four times." He added.

Osman confirmed that the airstrikes did not result in any civilian casualties, but they caused extensive damage, setting large areas of grasslands and forests ablaze.

According to a CPT report published this August, since Iraqi Kurdistan’s semi-autonomous territory was established in 1991, the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) have been responsible for 83% of civilian casualties inside Iraqi Kurdistan, resulting in 344 civilian deaths and 358 injuries, totaling 702 casualties. A significant portion of these casualties, 39%, occurred between 2018 and 2024, following an increase in military operations that began in December 2017. These operations, called the 'Claw' series, aim to create a buffer zone along the 360-kilometer-long Iraq/Turkiye border.

Turkiye, according to the report, has established 74 military bases inside Iraqi Kurdistan, leading to the displacement of thousands from at least 170 villages, with an additional 602 villages at risk. The Turkish military operations have severely disrupted local economies, livelihoods, and indigenous ways of life.

Notably, 59% of the casualties occurred while the victims were at home or engaged in agriculture, and 28% of the casualties were children, with 79 killed and 115 injured, the report said.