Several Kurdish media reports on new curfews being declared on many Kurdish villages in the province of Diyarbakir. Villagers are fleeing as their homes are being bombed. Exact amount of villages currently under curfew is unclear.

Published by Kurdistan24 on May 30, 2017 and Dihaber on May 31, 2017

DIYARBAKIR (Kurdistan24) – Renewed curfews on Tuesday were imposed on over 40 villages in the southeastern Kurdish province of Diyarbakir, according to Turkish officials. The curfews are part of ongoing security operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has been waging a resistance against the Turkish government. The restrictions in 43 villages of the Lice, Hani, Kocakoy, and Dicle districts began at 7:00 a.m. local time. Turkish officials informed the curfews would “remain in place until further notice,” in a statement released by the government office. Security forces will begin an offensive in rural areas to “neutralize” PKK fighters, including “senior members and their collaborators operating in the region,” the report added. The operation is also targeting the PKK’s bunkers, arms depots, and anti-aircraft gun emplacements, as well as confiscating weapons and ammunition an Al Jazeera report explained. Over 1,200 people, including security forces and civilians, have been killed since the PKK resumed a decades-old armed campaign in July 2015 after a two-year ceasefire between the group and government ended. The PKK is labeled a “terrorist” group by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States. Diyarbakir was the target of a curfew earlier this year in March when military and police personnel launched operations targeting the PKK in the area. Telephone lines and Internet connections were also cut off in the area, prompting a joint statement by Turkey’s Kurdish parties. “A new addition to the violations of human rights, the massacres, and genocide in Kurdistan where a dirty war is being waged,” the statement read. (Editing by G. H. Renaud)

DIYARBAKIR (English summary of a report by Dihaber) — Clashes have intensified in 6 districts of Diyarbakir where 104 villages are under curfew and comprehensive Turk military ops are being carried out with 10,000 Turk forces & helicopter shelling. 3 Turk soldiers were killed & 5 more soldiers + 1 village guard were injured in clashes in Lice today and the nearby mountain shelled by helicopter. Police then raided all the houses in the Zara (Gökçe) village 500 m away from these clashes and forced all the residents (about 300) to evacuate the village, saying “Leave the village in 10 minutes, soon jets and helicopters will bomb it.” Reports the residents then left the village on foot headed to the village of Kocaköy 10 kilometers away and had to leave their animals behind.

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