SULAIMANIYAH/Iraq: Turkey and Iran are increasingly adopting “game-changing” drones as their weapon of choice against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, prompting fears for the safety of civilians and stoking geopolitical tensions.
“Not a day goes by without us seeing a drone,” said Mohammad Hassan, mayor of Qandil, the mountainous Iraqi stronghold of Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“They fly so low Qandil’s residents can see them with their naked eye,” Hassan told AFP.
The PKK has used Qandil for decades as a rear-base for its insurgency against the Turkish state.
The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDK-I) has similar rear-bases in other remote areas of Iraqi Kurdistan, from which it launches attacks across the border into Iran.
Turkey and Iran consider the Kurdish rebels as “terrorists” and routinely conduct cross-border ground assaults, air strikes and artillery bombardments against their Iraq bases.
Starting in 2018, both countries began using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance and even targeted assassinations in northern Iraq.
Drone use has expanded dramatically since Turkey launched a new assault in June, analysts and residents of affected areas told AFP.
Activists said dozens of border villages and adjacent farms have been abandoned by their terrified residents.
The drone strikes have also prevented thousands of Yazidis from returning to their homes in Sinjar district, close to the Syrian border, where PKK elements now have a presence.
“The Turkish bombing causes so much terror, so Yazidis are not coming home,” Sinjar Mayor Mahma Khalil told AFP.
Despite public criticism, Turkey has continued its drone warfare — likely because of new strides against the PKK.
For years, the PKK sheltered in Iraq’s mountains, where manned warplanes and ground troops struggled to reach them.
But drones have allowed Ankara to track, identify and eliminate PKK targets within minutes, Nicholas Heras of the Institute for the Study of War told AFP.
“Turkey’s use of military drones in northern Iraq has been a game-changer in its war against the PKK,” he said.
Ankara is now swapping expensive fighter-bombers like the US F-16 for drones like the domestically-produced Bayraktar TB2, which has better surveillance, can fly for 24 hours and is cheaper — so “expendable” if downed by the PKK, said Turkish drone expert Sibel Duz.
In an exclusive interview in Qandil, PKK spokesman Zagros Hiwa told AFP Turkey had created a 15 km buffer zone in northern Iraq with the help of its drones.
“Our forces have downed seven drones this year,” he said, declining to provide details of PKK losses.
The PKK has had limited success with improvised drones of its own, commercial models fitted with explosives.
A US source familiar with Turkey’s drones program said US special operations forces in northern Iraq were bristling at the new “frequency and intensity” of strikes.
“The Turks are overflying US positions with armed assets, which is a no-no. There is general mistrust and irritation over all this,” the source said.
Iran first began deploying aircraft fitted with cameras during its 1980-88 war with Iraq.
The newer MoHajjer-6 and Shahed-129 are Tehran’s weapons of choice for northern Iraq, said Adam Rawnsley, who tracks Iranian drones for the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
“The way Iran is using drones against Kurdish targets in Iraq is 180 degrees different than how they use drones everywhere else. It’s much more sophisticated,” he said.
In a rare interview this spring, the head of Tehran’s drone division Col. Akbar Karimloo told local media Iran uses the aircraft for both surveillance and attack, and to provide forward observation for artillery and missile launchers.
Earlier this month, Iran said it would “take coordinated steps” with Turkey to counter Kurdish rebel activity along its borders. It did not specifically mention drones.
Baghdad and Kurdish authorities have said little on the expanding drone campaigns, and Iraqi officials have told AFP privately they have no leverage over Turkey or Iran.
After a Turkish drone strike killed two top Iraqi officers in the north in August, Baghdad expressed outrage but did not pressure Ankara.
“The general problem Iraq has is that larger powers tend to use it as a shooting gallery,” Rawnsley told AFP.
Wim Zwijnenburg, who works on disarmament for Dutch peace organization PAX, said avenues for recourse were limited.
“A lot of these strikes are in areas which are not very populated, so there’s little information from people or journalists on the ground,” he said.
Indeed, neither activists nor officials could provide a specific death toll from drone strikes in the north.
“That only adds to the obscurity of the drone campaigns,” Zwijnenburg told AFP.
Turkey, Iran deploy drones in north Iraq against Kurd rebels
https://arab.news/p9882
Turkey, Iran deploy drones in north Iraq against Kurd rebels
- The PKK has used Qandil for decades as a rear-base for its insurgency against the Turkish state
Israel strikes southern Syria: state media, monitor
“Israeli occupation jets launch air strikes targeting the surroundings of Daraa city,” said Damascus’s official news agency SANA, without immediately providing further details.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Israel targeted a military site once belonging to ousted president Bashar Assad’s army but now used by the forces of Syria’s new authorities.
The Britain-based Observatory reported that a fire broke out, with ambulances rushing to the scene amid reports of casualties.
Since Assad’s overthrow in December, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the strategic Golan Heights.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the air force conducted a strike on Damascus on Thursday, with the military saying it had hit a “command center” of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.
The Observatory reported one fatality in that strike, with SANA saying it targeted a building in the capital.
The Israeli military said the “command center was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad” against Israel.
A source in Islamic Jihad said a building belonging to the group had been hit by Israeli jets, adding there were “martyrs and wounded” in the strike.
Ismail Sindawi, Islamic Jihad’s representative in Syria, told AFP the targeted building had been “closed for five years and nobody from the movement frequented it.” Israel was just sending a message, Sindawi said.
Even before Assad’s fall, during the Syrian civil war that broke out in 2011, Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.
Jordan’s FM says Syria’s reconstruction must preserve security, unity
- Ayman Safadi met his Syrian counterpart on the sidelines of an international conference in Brussels
- Ties between Amman and Damascus have improved since the fall of the Assad regime
LONDON: Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Al-Shaibani, in Brussels on Monday on the sidelines of an international conference to support Syria’s political transformation.
Ties between the neighboring countries have improved since the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December. Interim president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, visited Amman in late February.
In Brussels, the ministers discussed the most recent developments in Syria. Safadi said that Jordan supports Syria’s reconstruction on the basis of preserving its security and unity while protecting the rights of Syrians, the Petra agency reported.
On Monday, the EU hosted the ninth international conference to support Syria. Representatives from the new interim government were invited to attend for the first time, including Al-Shaibani.
The event aims to bolster international support for Syria’s transition and recovery following more than 13 years of civil war.
Palestinian detainees ministry warns of virus outbreak in Israeli Megiddo Prison
- 90 percent of prisoners have suffered from diarrhea and vomiting in the past 10 days
- Ministry accuses Israel Prison Service of medical negligence for not providing adequate treatment
LONDON: The Palestinian Authority warned on Monday of a virus outbreak among Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails that could severely affect their health and well-being.
The PA’s Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reported that prisoners in Megiddo Prison in northern Israel have been suffering from diarrhea and vomiting in the past 10 days. It reported that nearly 90 percent of the prisoners experienced these issues, and some lost consciousness due to the severity of the illness, particularly among the elderly.
The ministry accused the Israel Prison Service of medical negligence for not providing adequate treatment. Megiddo Prison is the second-largest Israeli prison, following the notorious Negev Desert Prison.
Since October 2023, the ministry has recorded the deaths of 53 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, with the most recent being Moataz Abu Zneid from Dura, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.
By the end of December, Israel had detained 9,619 Palestinians, including 2,216 from the Gaza Strip. However, Tel Aviv released around 600 Palestinians in a ceasefire and captive exchange deal with Hamas in early 2025.
EU vows 2.5 bn euros to help Syrians after Assad ouster
- For the first time, the Syrian authorities were represented at the annual conference in Brussels
- Outbreak of deadly violence this month has rocked confidence in the new authorities
BRUSSELS: The EU led the way on pledging aid for Syria on Monday at a donor drive in Brussels — but the call for funding to help the war-torn country after Bashar Assad’s ouster risked falling short of last year as US support dries up.
Western and regional powers are desperate to steer Syria onto the road to stability after 14 years of civil war that have sent millions of refugees over its borders.
For the first time, the Syrian authorities were represented at the annual conference in Brussels — with interim foreign minister Assaad Al-Shibani attending.
But an outbreak of deadly violence this month — the worst since Assad was toppled in December — has rocked confidence in the new authorities.
European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels was stepping up its commitment for this year and next to almost 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) to help those in Syria and neighboring countries.
“Syrians need greater support, whether they are still abroad, or they decide to go home,” she told the Brussels conference.
The vow from Brussels came on top of significant contributions from individual countries, including some $330 million from Germany and $210 million from Britain.
Last year’s donor drive raised 7.5 billion euros in grants and loans to help the people of Syria. The overall total for this year will be announced later Monday.
Efforts to top that level this time around look set to be hit by US President Donald Trump’s axing of Washington’s foreign aid budget.
Up until now, the United States has been the single biggest individual donor to fund humanitarian efforts in Syria, according to the United Nations.
Syria’s new rulers have been clamouring for assistance to help the country’s recovery.
The EU has eased sanctions on key sectors of the economy, but along with other powers it insists the authorities must make good on promises for an inclusive transition.
“We do appreciate the major measures taken by the European Union, such as the lifting or suspending of the sanctions,” Shibani said.
“However, these measures did not live up so far to our expectations. We want further measures in order to help us secure our recovery.”
There have been positive moves from Damascus, including Sharaa signing a constitutional declaration laying out a five-year transitional period, and rights for women and freedom of expression.
But hopes were shaken by the violence on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, which a war monitor said saw security forces kill nearly 1,500 civilians, most of them members of the Alawite minority to which the Assad family belongs.
Shibani insisted that the new authorities would bring to justice “anyone who perpetrated any crime, whose hands are stained with blood.”
“We believe in the true sense of citizenship, the citizenship of every single citizen of Syria, regardless of their ethnicity or religion,” he said.
The EU has held its annual donor drive for Syria for the past eight years but it mainly focused on supporting refugees in neighboring countries and avoided any contacts with the Assad regime.
Syria’s needs are massive as swathes of the country lie in ruins and the economy has been ravaged by years of international isolation after Assad’s 2011 crackdown on opposition sparked the civil war.
The country still faces a dire humanitarian situation, with an estimated 16.7 million people in need of assistance.
“It would be a mistake to disinvest from Syria now,” said Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“Humanitarian aid remains a lifeline that millions of Syrians depend on. Severing it now would only deepen their suffering and prolong the country’s recovery,” she said.
The United Nations says that, at current growth rates, Syria would need more than 50 years to get back to its economic level before the outbreak of the war.
King of Jordan discusses Gaza, regional development with Italian president, PM
- King Abdullah highlighted Italy’s vital role in Gaza’s humanitarian assistance and airlift efforts
- He warned about escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank and violations of holy sites in Jerusalem
LONDON: King Abdullah II of Jordan met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome on Monday to discuss regional developments.
King Abdullah stressed the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and highlighted Italy’s vital role in humanitarian assistance and airlift efforts carried out by Jordan, Petra reported.
He affirmed that Jordan supports the reconstruction of Gaza without the displacement of its residents and warned about the escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank and violations of holy sites in Jerusalem.
During the meeting attended by Qais Abu Daieh, the Jordanian ambassador to Rome, and Alaa Batayneh, the director of King Abdullah’s office, Mattarella and the Jordanian monarch reviewed their countries’ friendly relations.
The king also met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday, during which he stressed that a two-state solution was essential for regional stability.
Discussions with Meloni covered Jordan-Italy cooperation, Syria’s stability, and Lebanon’s security.
Meloni reaffirmed Italy’s support for Jordan’s role in promoting peace in the Middle East. The meeting was also attended by Batayneh.
