The Turkish air force has bombed the region of Binarê Qendîl in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the co-mayor Dilşêr Îbrahîm, the attacks yesterday evening were directed against the villages of Kuzîne and Drabî.

While there was also initially no indication of any casualties, fighter jets continued to circle in the skies over the region. According to Îbrahîm, air activity attributed to Turkey has also been observed in Pîşder, south of Binarê Qendîl, since Thursday evening.

Binarê Qendîl is located in the Zagros Mountains and borders on Iranian territory. The region is decoupled from the ruling structures of Baghdad and Hewlêr (Erbil) and is organised on a communal level. For years, it has organised itself according to the model of democratic autonomy and the basic principles of the gender-libertarian paradigm of the Kurdish freedom movement. The community consists of the five regions of Navdeşt, Dola Şaroş, Qelatûkan, Maradu and Dola Baleyan and a total of 63 smaller and larger villages, which are repeatedly subjected to attacks by the Turkish army.

In April, a woman was injured in an airstrike on Binarê Qendîl. At the end of September, a 55-year-old woman died as a result of a drone attack in the village of Bokrîskan, while a man survived with serious injuries. The region is also a thorn in the side of Iran's leadership. Last October, a shepherd was shot dead by Iranian border troops in a mountain pasture area. The most brutal attack on Binarê Qendîl to date was the Zergelê massacre in August 2015, when Turkish fighter jets bombed the village in three waves, killing eight civilians. A further 15 people were injured, some of them seriously.