IRAQI KURDISTAN
Turkish army used thermobaric bombs in Werxelê

The sheaths discovered in the materials left behind by the Turkish troops in the Werxelê region were of the hybrid and thermobaric type, which can be used on land.

ANF / AMARGİ ARHAT BA
BEHDINAN
Friday, 8 Apr 2022, 

As the snow melted in the Werxelê combat tunnels and positions region, more evidence of Turkish army war crimes was revealed. Boxes with the writing 'THERMOBARIC' can be seen in photographs captured and documented by the guerillas.

Following the defeat of the Turkish troops in Garê last year, the invasion attack covering Zap, Metîna, and Avaşîn from the night of April 23 to April 24 met with fierce opposition. The Turkish army, unable to defeat the guerrilla resistance despite NATO help, all of its armaments, airpower-based technical facilities, and the employment of all combat elements, has resorted to different toxic and prohibited weapons, disregarding global humanitarian, legal, and moral values.

5 DIFFERENT CHEMICALS HAVE BEEN DETECTED

Murat Karayılan, the Commander of the People's Defense Center (HSM), revealed in an interview to ANF on December 27 that they identified the use of five types of chemical weapons, and classified them as follows:

* One of them is nerve gas, the major element of which is Tabun. In other terms, it freezes the person's nerve cells, causing him to remain motionless and resulting in death in a short period of time.

* Suffocation is their secondary weapon. Chloropin gas is used in this weapon. This gas is also known as Green Cross.

*The other gas is flammable. People are burned and dried by this gas. It sets everywhere on fire wherever it is used. Sulfur Mustant is the chemical term for it. Yellow Cross is another name for it.

*Another chemical they use induces sluggishness, and memory loss, and knocks one out. Man suffers from periodic paralysis.

*The fifth option is pepper spray. In other words, they are the gases that are now being used in social events. Of course, when it is used in a confined space or a tunnel, the living conditions for people disappear.

REPORTS SENT TO 40 COUNTRIES

In an interview published on Mezopotamya Agency on February 5, KNK (Kurdistan National Congress) Co-Chair Ahmet Karamus further stated, "Chemical weapons were employed 323 times in air and ground attacks in Kanimasi, Avaşîn, and Metîna areas. Some international institutions conducted investigations in these areas. Tests on people who died as a result of the use of chemical weapons were used, and it was established once again that Turkey employs chemical weapons.” Karamus revealed that they delivered a report to 40 countries based on the information and documents gathered as a result of their investigations into the use of chemical weapons.

IT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE A MEMBER OF NATO

KNK Co-Chair said, "The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was one of the groups we spoke with. We handed the evidence and reports we had gathered to them. We submitted applications several times. They took our documents and reports. There has been no response to the reports we have sent so far. They stay away from Turkey because it is a NATO member.”

550 VILLAGES HAVE BEEN AFFECTED

Saying that chemical weapons were used in 550 villages during the Turkish state's invasion attacks, Karamus said locals who fell ill or injured as a result have turned to health institutions. Unfortunately, however, there is a great silence.”

THERE ARE RECENT FINDINGS

New findings have emerged regarding the chemical and prohibited weapons used by the Turkish army, which caused the death of 40 guerrillas, as announced by the HPG Press and Liaison Center (BİM) in its 2021 war balance sheet. As the snow melted in the area where the Werxelê war tunnels and positions are located, the guerrillas reached the evidence that the Turkish army had left before the retreat, taking their photographs and images.

GAS MIXTURES

The containers with high-concentration salt spirit and bleach employed by the Turkish army stand out. Tens of litres of bleach, salt spirit, and other compounds are seen to be blended and used by turning them into gas. It is well known that even a small amount of low-density spirit salt and bleach mixed together while cleaning the house has a toxic effect. With these findings, it is clear that the Turkish government is attempting to poison the guerrillas by mixing the same chemicals in large amounts.

THERMOBARIC BOXES

Among the materials documented, cardboards with the inscription 'THERMOBARIC' stand out. The Geneva Convention forbids the use of a thermobaric (vacuum) bomb, which combines great heat and startling pressure to destroy the area in which it explodes.

The term thermobaric is derived from the Greek terms thermos, which means "heat," and baros, which means "pressure." This weapon creates a high-temperature explosion by combining shock waves and vacuums. The weapon renders the targets in the penetration area ineffective through the huge fireball and pressure created by the method of mixing a highly flammable substance with oxygen in the atmosphere at a pre-set altitude in a thermochemical air-fuel ratio, and then igniting this mixture with an electronic fuse included in the bomb set-up.

Russia and the United States develop the thermobaric bomb, which was also excessively employed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after WWII.

Human Rights Watch cautioned in its February 2000 report: "The lethal mechanism against living targets is unusual. What kills is the pressure wave and, more significantly, the subsequent sparseness (vacuum) that ruptures the lungs. If the fuel ignites but does not detonate, the victims will be severely burned and may inhale the burning fuel.” According to the report, the most frequent FAE (fuel-air explosive) fuels are ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, both of which are very hazardous.

USED ​​AGAINST TUNNELS

According to information obtained from HPG-BIM following the latest images, the Turkish army employs the same method with chemical weapons in such sophisticated weaponry as well. Because it will have an impact on Turkish soldiers on the ground if employed from the air, attention is being given to the hybrid manufacture, which is compact in size and can be utilized against ground battle tunnels. The guerrillas who were exposed to thermobaric bomb explosions in Girê Sor and Werxelê characterized the situation as "a concussion that generated an earthquake following a strong explosion."