In South Kurdistan, Turkish occupation forces have been attacked again by an air defense unit of the PKK guerrillas. As the press office of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) said in a statement on Monday, the air strikes were aimed at bases and military camps built by the Turkish army on the western front of the Zap region. According to the HPG, at least five soldiers were killed in the attacks and another thirteen were injured. In addition, five army tents were destroyed and three positions damaged.

The air strikes were reportedly carried out between 1 and 11 August and hit targets on the Girê FM, Girê Amêdî, Girê Bahar peaks and in the Sergele resistance area. The HPG was able to confirm the identity and ranks of some of the soldiers killed and injured. They were staff sergeants Ümit Şahin, Baki Kalan and Ziyar Vural, corporal Halil Ibrahim Güvercin and two mercenaries Tolga Armut and Oktay Cengiz. The HPG dedicated these actions to those who started the armed struggle on 15 August 1984.

The air strikes were carried out by the guerrilla unit named after the fallen commander Doğan Zinar, a regional commander and member of the HPG command council and the PKK reconstruction committee.

Zinar was killed in November 2017 along with twelve other guerrillas in a military operation in Amed. The unit first appeared in June with attacks against the ongoing occupation operation by the Turkish army, also in the Zap region. Recordings of the actions were broadcast by Gerîla TV. The guerrilla's most recent air strikes against Turkish occupiers were also documented in a video.

The HPG added that the Turkish government was concealing its recent losses on the war front in South Kurdistan from the public. Despite the high number of soldiers killed and injured as a result of the air strikes, there is a stubborn silence both in Ankara and in the pro-government sensationalist media, which the HPG called the "special war press". The HPG said: "No matter how hard they try to conceal the truth, the occupiers will not be able to avoid being targeted by the Kurdish freedom guerrillas who are following in the footsteps of the great commander Egîd, both from the ground and from the air."