In the course of the siege of the Maxmur refugee camp in Southern Kurdistan, the Iraqi army has reinforced its troops in the area. Intense military movements have been observed in the region since the afternoon. An ANF camera was able to capture the transport of several army vehicles. Among them are armoured personnel carriers as well as vehicles with mounted machine guns.

The military siege of Maxmur Camp has been going on for a week. The camp near Hewlêr (Erbil), founded by refugees from Northern Kurdistan, is intended to be fenced in and transformed into a huge open-air prison with watchtowers. The Iraqi army positioned hundreds of soldiers with armoured vehicles and heavy construction equipment in the vicinity of Maxmur in order to dig trenches and barbed wire and to surround the camp with watchtowers, despite the conducted negotiations with the People's Council of Maxmur.

In response, the people of Maxmur are resisting unabated. They have erected guard tents where people discuss and sing. The people of the self-governed camp are against the militarisation of Maxmur. The People's Council suspects that this sudden and persistent manoeuvre by the Iraqi army could be a signal of a wider political plan.

However, the People's Council locates the real source of the crackdown on Maxmur in Ankara. The Turkish state calls the camp a "breeding ground" for the PKK and repeatedly threatens to "cleanse" it. In recent years, Maxmur Camp has been repeatedly bombed by the Turkish air force. In August, a father of six was killed in a Turkish drone strike.