Turkey Begins Shelling Villages
Duhuk, Oct 21, (VOI) –Turkish forces shelled cross-border regions in Iraq’s Kurdistan’s province of Duhuk on Sunday, an official source from the border guard forces said.
“Turkish artillery fired 85 artillery shells at 13 cross-border villages in Zakho and Amadiyah, on Sunday at dawn, with no casualties reported,” the source, who requested anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Meanwhile, local residents said that the Turkish shelling brought down an overhead pedestrian bridge in Nazardor village of Zakho district.
Duhuk is the third province within Iraq’s Kurdistan region. It is in the far north of Iraq and borders Turkey.
The shelling came amid fears of a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq after the Turkish parliament on Wednesday approved a mandate for the Turkish government to pursue the Turkish banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) inside Iraqi territories.
The permission was granted after the Turkish government sought a mandate from the parliament to chase the PKK’s fighters inside the Iraqi territories after 13 Turkish soldiers were ambushed by PKK in southeastern Turkey.
Erdogan however, said that the mandate did not mean an imminent incursion into northern Iraq, expressing hope that “the military action be avoided.”