Turkey’s months-long military operations in border areas on Iraqi Kurdistan soil have turned up pressure on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has long used the region as a base in its armed campaign against Ankara, pushing the militants to move deeper into Iraqi Kurdistan, where their presence is causing friction with local Kurds and fanning fears of renewed Kurdish fratricide.
Tensions spiked in mid-October, when special forces under the direct command of Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), moved northeast of Dohuk to encircle Gare Mountain, which is one of the PKK’s camp areas in the region. After special forces deployed to at least 10 localities, commando units set up checkpoints in the area, according to Kurdish media outlets.
