The Ministry of National Defense announced that terrorists who used civilians in the village of Dergele in northern Iraq as human shields and launched mortar attacks on Turkish troops have started to set forests on fire to prevent their location from being detected.
In a post made on the social media account of the Ministry of National Defense, it was stated: “Terrorists who used civilians in the village of Dergele as a shield and launched mortar attacks on our troops started to set forests on fire in order to prevent their location from being detected. Knowing the sensitivity of the Turkish Armed Forces towards civilians and residential areas, the terrorists, who both shield the villagers and set fire to the forests to hide, are trying to endanger the civilian population in northern Iraq as they have been doing for years. PKK terrorists are also trying to deceive the local people in the areas they set on fire with lies such as ‘the forests burned down due to the fire opened by the Turkish Armed Forces’. At the same time, the terrorists open fire in the villages they enter, endangering the lives and property of civilians. No matter what the terrorist organization does, the Turkish Armed Forces’ sensitivity to civilians, settlements, the environment and nature will continue! Terrorists will not escape from the clutches of Mehmetçik.”
