Attacks by state forces intensify in İdil

Turkish state forces shell the streets of İdil as more than 4 thousand police officers and soldiers accompanied by armored vehicles continue to blockade the town.

After the beginning of the curfew in Şırnak’s İdil district last night around 23:00, Turkish artillery bombarded Turgut Özal Neighborhood until this morning and Yeni Neighborhood during the afternoon. A power outage began in the district when electricity distributors on the Adile Naşit Avenue of Turgut Özal Neighborhood exploded this afternoon.

Military deployment of soldiers, police officers and armored vehicles from Cizre to İdil continues and the total number of Turkish forces in the district reached 4 thousand. 50 tanks and numerous armored vehicles accompany the forces, and soldiers took position in the Xirabe Şeref village that is only 2 kilometers away from the district center. Soldiers do house-to-house searches in the village where a school was destroyed earlier in order to prevent soldiers’ potential use of the school as a military base.

Xirabe Şeref is where former HDP Şırnak parliamentarian Hasip Kaplan was born in, and Kaplan criticized the curfew in his village through Twitter where he said that the lack of barricades in Xirabe Şeref proved the illegitimacy of the curfew. Aerial vehicles and helicopters continue to fly over Cehennem Creek near the village throughout the day.

Before its imminent attacks on İdil, the AKP-led Turkish state has stored petroleum with the help of tankers from Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. With the announcement of the curfew, military deployment to İdil intensified and Turkish forces began to use 2 fuel tankers for storing petroleum that they would use during their attacks in İdil.

On the other hand, 12 village guards from Kobağ and Herbaka villages in Deşta Darê resigned because they did not want to participate in the attacks on İdil.

İdil Democratic Peoples’ Assembly had declared autonomy in the district last August, after the AKP failed to respect the results of the June 7 elections. İdil YPS and YPS-Jin units were also established in order to protect local residents from the attacks of the Turkish state. 2 YPS members were killed, dozens were injured, and 11 civilians were imprisoned during the defense of the district since the summer of 2015.