Turkish artillery shells border villages in Zakho

DUHUK / IraqiNews.com: Turkey has launched fresh air and artillery strikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Zakho in northern Iraq without leaving casualties, a military source said on Wednesday. “The Turkish artillery and aircrafts shelled the border village of Rowei in Batieva district on Wednesday afternoon (Mar. 25) for 30 minutes without causing casualties,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. The PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, which is banned in Turkey, has been leading an armed campaign inside Turkey since 1984. Iraqi border areas in the Kurdistan region, adjacent to Turkey and Iran, are coming under occasional Turkish air attacks and Iranian artillery shelling allegedly to strike the strongholds of the PKK and the PJAK (Partiya Jiyana Azada Kurdistanê in Kurdish or Kurdistan Free Life Party), both are against Turkey and Iran respectively. Relations between Iraq and Turkey were sharply tested last year when Turkish forces crossed into Iraq in pursuit of PKK. Duhuk, also spelled Duhok, Dohuk Dehok or Dahok; is a city in the far northern part of Iraq to the borders with Turkey. It has about 500,000 inhabitants, mostly consisting of Kurds and Assyrians. According to some sources, the name “Duhuk” comes from Kurmanji Kurdish meaning “small village”. SH (S) 3