Geolocation
Airwars assessment
At least two civilians were injured in alleged Turkish air or artillery strikes on the village of Behri in Zakho District at 2:30 am on May 26th 2021, according to local media reports.
Kurdistan24 said that two brothers were wounded “as a result of repeated Turkish artillery shelling”. Asharq News also reported that two people were injured, adding that they were both sheepherders and were severely injured.
Roj News identified the names of the civilians: “two shepherds came from the Shengal area, Hassan Mohsen and Ali Mohsen, while they were transferred to a hospital in Dohuk. The condition of one of them is critical.”
From his hospital bed Hassan Muhsin, 20, told Rudaw: “It was 2:30 [am]. A bomb hit us. We were sleeping. I didn’t see anything. I wanted to get up and I saw blood trickling down my neck. I was conscious but I couldn’t get out of bed”. Mr. Muhsin reportedly required surgery on his foot while his brother was said to be in a less serious condition.
The brothers were said to be two of five shepherds who were staying in two houses in the Darkar region of Zakho.
According to a report by Christian Peacemaker Teams, “at 2:30 in the morning, the Turkish military shelled Bhere village, west of Kesta mountain in Darkar sub-district, Zakho district”.
Basnews provided information that the village that was bombed was a stronghold of PKK militants and that “the two brothers, Hassan and Ali Mohsen Al-Masban, [are] from a displaced family from Shengal, work as shepherds in the area for a monthly wage. One of them told the (Basnews) reporter that they were asleep at the time of the bombing.”
Ali Mahmoud, who owned the sheep the men were tending to, told Rudaw: “It’s on the main street. It’s a touristic place… people come and go and the situation was very calm… Two months ago the Turkish army and PKK ruined our situation.”
Houses were said to have been damaged in the strike according to Hakim Ghazi, a local who was interviewed by Rudaw.
All of the sources attributed the strikes to Turkey.
The incident occured at 02:30:00 local time.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (10) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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"Hassan Muhsin, injured in Turkish shelling in the Zakho region, lies in a Duhok hospital bed on May 26, 2021." (Uploaded by Rudaw)
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Caption translation: a Turkish bombardment hit the village of Bhairi in the sub-district early in the morning Today, Wednesday, two brothers were injured. (Image posted by basnews)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Behri (بهيري), allegedly located within the Zakho (زاخو) district. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. According to research, there is a Behri Cave (كهف بهيري) located within this area, which could be in the vicinity of the village. The generic coordinates for Behri Cave are: 37.240802, 42.824356.