This weekend, a series of bombings and attacks took place in Dohuk governorate. Miska and Rabatkeh were the main targets, affecting mainly homes and places of worship. Residents extinguished a fire caused by the explosives, limiting the damage. The hashtag #Turkey_Occupies_Dohuk went viral on the internet.
Erbil () – Two churches have been badly damaged, several houses have been destroyed and a community lives in fear of further violence. This is the result, still partial, of a series of bombings and raids by Ankara’s army in the governorate of Dohuk, in Iraqi Kurdistan, which affected several Christian villages in the northern valley of Nahla, near the border with Turkey and Iran. The attacks took place last weekend and confirm fears of a serious military escalation in the area where, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the operational bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are located.
Since June 28, the Turkish air force has launched a series of operations in the valley in northern Iraq, where there are numerous Assyrian-Chaldean Christian villages that have no connection with the Kurdish militias. Ankara claims to want to attack the militants, who belong to a faction considered terrorist, but in reality it is also targeting the civilian population in the area, according to several sources.
The latest to be affected – this year there have been almost 840 “attacks and bombings” by Ankara’s armed forces, which have caused the death of eight civilians – are the villages of Miska and Rabatkeh. Turkish bombs also caused massive fires in the mountains, which affected the homes and property of local residents.
The church in the village of Miska was damaged by a grenade and two other houses were destroyed, although no one was inside at the time of the explosion. A video posted by RojNews shows the extent of the destruction (Click here to see the video), the rubble accumulated around the church and the houses destroyed by the bombing.
In the village of Rabatkeh, another grenade hit civilian targets and caused a large fire, but the residents’ quick intervention allowed them to extinguish the flames without causing further damage, thus also saving the place of worship. The scale of the violence led activists and Internet users to denounce the situation by reproducing a series of posts with the hashtag #Turkey_Occupies_Dohuk, which is trending on social media and highlights the growing military presence that is forcing residents to flee. A spiral that fuels anger and discontent among the inhabitants of the region.
Following repeated attacks, villagers are left in shock and fear for the fate of their families, homes and property. Christians are often caught in the crossfire in a region where there is a growing number of flashpoints stretching from Iraq to Turkey and from Iran to the Holy Land. Christian communities have therefore called on local institutions and the relevant authorities to provide “adequate protection” in the face of an ever-increasing risk to people’s lives and safety.
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