Turkish air force kills Iraqi civilians, update

Posted on August 5, 2015 by petrel41

Iraqi village destroyed by Turkish bombs, photo by Chloe Cornish

By Chloe Cornish

The village of Zargali nestles in northern Iraq’s Qandil Mountains, close to the Iranian border. More than an hour’s drive from the nearest town, the road hairpins beneath stark cliff faces and through orchards.

Despite harsh summer temperatures, it is green and pleasant, split by a river edged with walnut trees.

But on 1 August, the peace was shattered as Turkish warplanes bombed the area as part of their assault on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) …

In a visit undertaken by few foreign journalists, IRIN travelled to the village to see the damage caused. While Turkey says the strikes are focused purely on hitting the militants, the PKK say they had no fighters in the area.

Whatever the truth of these claims and counter-claims, ordinary people appear to have borne the brunt of this particular air assault. Mohammad Hassan, co-president of the local municipality, said eight civilians died and 16 more were wounded. No fighters were killed, he said.

“I told him not to go to the village,” 26-year-old Rebwar said, describing the last time he saw his friend Karokh. “But he said, no, I have to.” Karokh was visiting a neighbouring village when the first airstrike hit his family home in Zargali, killing his mother. He rushed back to the house to try to help his father.

“Actually I wanted to go with him,” admitted Rebwar. “But my family said no.”

Twenty minutes later, as the rescuers rushed to free the wounded from under the debris, a second airstrike hit the same spot.

“It was a catastrophe. There were lots of dead bodies. The human flesh was burning and smelled horrible. I saw Karokh’s leg sticking out from under the rubble,” said Rebwar. “He was a very good man.”

Two fronts or one?

Karokh’s death highlights the stark differences between the US-led coalition and Turkish policies in the region – he was a member of the Peshmerga, the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region’s fighting force, often singled out as a key Western ally in fighting ISIS.

Late last month, Turkey announced it would begin bombing the so-called Islamic State in northern Syria after agreeing a deal with the American government. …

Since the campaign began, however, there have been dozens of attacks on PKK targets in Iraqi Kurdistan’s northern region, but just a handful on Islamic State in Syria … raising concerns that Ankara has used the threat of the Islamists as an excuse to target old foes.

For the rural community of Zargali, the impact of this campaign has been dire. Ava Shin, a doctor at the village’s small medical clinic, was attending to the victims of a bomb attack on a different village when Zargali was hit. She confirmed the double-strike.

“I saw one of [the dead]. His intestines were spilling out,” Shin said, miming the injury. “He was still alive but in shock and losing lots of blood. He died in front of my eyes.”

“[Another] is in a coma now. I saw someone with a head injury, one person who lost an ear. Another lady lost four family members.”

A PKK spokesperson, who calls himself Zagros, gave IRIN access to the bomb site. The PKK mans checkpoints along the valley and journalists cannot gain access without their consent. He said there were five houses there that had been flattened.

There was no trace of the structures except smashed concrete. Heavy pieces of shrapnel from the bombs were visible amongst the rubble. Zagros pointed to the spot where the victim of the initial strike had been found. He said she was an elderly lady, consistent with Rebwar’s account that this was Karokh’s mother.

“No. Not at all. Of course PKK fighters came to help the injured at that time. I myself came and helped,” insisted Zagros. “But I don’t live in this village.”

“We don’t have bases nearby. Our bases are in the mountains. We don’t use villages as bases. Where is the nearest one? I cannot tell you!” he laughed.

Zagros said that the PKK did not expect the airstrike in Zargali. “Everybody knows this is a village. We are not fighting Turkey here. People here are living their lives. They are not the ones to pay for the fighting.” …

For many of the residents, this attack was the last straw. This is the second time in two years that these villages have suffered a Turkish air offensive. …

Since the attack, approximately 900 people have fled Zargali to Warta, a sub-district further west, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Um Bahram is among those planning to quit her village next to Zargali, saying she lives in constant fear. “We are really scared even being here now, just waiting for the drone sound,” she said, pointing out the cracks in their house that she says were caused by the blast from the airstrike. “But we came today because we have work to do on our farmland.”

“We will have dinner and leave before sunset.”

“My nephew was killed,” she said. “They are all our people, our tribe.”

Ten-year old Zahra stood close to her mother. “For several days my daughter couldn’t eat anything, she was so scared and shocked,” said Um Bahram. “My husband went to Diana (a town nearby) to find us some place to live in… It will be very difficult. But what can you do? It is to save our lives.”

Sabah Ibrahim is a teacher at Zargali’s primary school. “We evacuated the first night of Turkish airstrikes, around 4am. They came twice after that. We saw lots of airstrikes before, but it was never like this.”

After windows smashed over his sleeping family, Sabah rushed outside to see if his car was on fire. It wasn’t his car. The entire hillside was burning, and the trees around his car were alight. Racing to recover the vehicle, he found a girl lying unconscious in the road, thrown by the force of the blast. The bomb had landed some 250 metres from Sabah’s house. Among his walnut trees, a charred trunk remains.

“They even bombed the river channel,” he said, disbelievingly.

“I have a seven-year-old daughter; her mentality, her psychological health has been distorted by this fighting,” said Sabah, rattling his prayer beads. “During the night she wakes up and starts to cry. We do our best to calm her by saying that nothing’s happened and it will never be repeated. But we can’t be sure – we just want to help her.”

Fifty local children attend his school, but “if the war continues, it’s impossible to have a school.”

Sabah’s family has moved further up the valley, living in a house with three other displaced families. An NGO came to deliver blankets and mattresses to them. “We need a shelter to live in. We don’t need mattresses and blankets”. Sabah refused to take the aid he didn’t need.

Although they won’t stay long in case the drones and planes return, Sabah showed IRIN his damaged property in Zargali. The ground is littered with shards of glass where the bomb blast shattered the windows. Two of Sabah’s female cousins were seriously injured by shrapnel and are being treated in Erbil. One is now blind.

“I just started to create my nice garden and clean the environment. Look how beautiful it is here. I would cry for myself.” There are small rose plants and rows of tender purple basil. …

IRIN left the village amidst the crackle of walkie-talkies reporting that a helicopter was in the air nearby.

Nine Iraqi soldiers killed by ‘friendly fire’ in US-led coalition airstrike. Iraq says coalition air forces were supporting ground troops fighting Islamic State near Falluja when the personnel were killed: here.