Residents of northern Iraq terrified by Turkish bombing

Audio 01:23

Text by: Lucile Wassermann Follow

Operation "Tiger's Claw", launched by the Turkish army, continues in northern Iraq. Since the beginning of the week, a large bombing campaign has targeted rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, followed on Wednesday by ground intervention by Turkish special forces. A Kurdish official where the fighting takes place said on Friday that a shepherd had been killed. The first civilian victim of this Turkish offensive. The locals are terrified.

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The people of northern Iraq have been living to the rhythm of Turkish bombing for 5 days. Ahmed, 28, lives near Haftenin where the fighting is taking place. He was having a picnic with friends when the bombs started to rain in front of them. "  We heard an explosion and then we quickly understood that it was an air strike against the mountain in front of us," he says. We got scared because we thought we could be targeted by mistake. "

Turkish incursions are common in northern Iraq, but Operation Tiger Claw surprised residents by its scale and duration, as Haji Sindi, 27, explains. He lives with his family in the town of Zakho, about thirty kilometers south of the fighting in progress: “  This time, they are bombing areas that they did not bomb before. Even in Zakho you can hear the sound of planes. Many people have left their homes. Anyone can be killed at any time. "

For this young Kurd, the responsibility rests as much with Turkey as with the PKK rebels, installed in the region: "  The PKK should leave these regions because it disturbs the local population, and because of it many people do not can't come here freely. But Turkey must also stop its bombing because many lives are in danger.  "

Summoned by Baghdad, the Turkish ambassador said that the operation would continue until the PKK was expelled from Iraq.

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• Iraq
• Turkey

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