Turkish army bolsters positions in northern Iraq

(29 Jun 2020) The Turkish army has established five new posts in northern Iraq, near the Iraqi-Turkish border, the mayor of Darkar district in Zakho said on Monday.
Turkey has recently stepped up a military campaign targeting Kurdish rebels that has drawn condemnation from Iraqi officials.
Darkar mayor Zerevan Musa said Turkey flew in troops on helicopters and established the posts on mountains near the villages of Sharanish and Banka, which lie within Iraqi territory.
Musa added that the Turks have gone more than 30 kilometres deep into Iraqi territory, in different areas in the northern Kurdish region.
Several Turkish airstrikes hit farms and other sites around Sharanish and Banka villages.
Video showed smoke from the airstrikes, and what from a distance appeared to be Turkish troops on a mountainside.
Turkey launched an air and ground offensive into the border region this month in a campaign to root out the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which Ankara maintains has bases in northern Iraq.
Turkey regularly carries out air and ground attacks against the PKK in northern Iraq.
It says neither the Iraqi government nor the regional Iraqi Kurdish administration have taken measures to combat the group.

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