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Kurdish Militants Pound Turkish Military Post With RPGs and Small Arms (May 2021
Published 3 years ago
Kurdish People's Defense Forces (HPG), the armed branch of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), released a video showing a May 13, 2021 attack against the Turkish military Gürbulak border gate in the eastern Turkish province of Ağrı, on the Iranian border.
The footage shows multiple Kurdish insurgents sneaking in close to the outpost and then pounding it with rocket propelled grenades. One of the cameramen then switches to his rifle after depleting his RPG warheads. Interestingly, the fighter fires his rifle at a full cyclic rate, which is uncharacteristic of these units, as they normally demonstrate ammo conservation, even when engaged in intense direct fire exchanges. After dumping his munitions into the Turkish base, the attackers rapidly withdraw and disappear before Turkish aircraft or reinforcements can arrive.
The HPG press release claimed to have destroyed one of the armored Cobra gun trucks visible in the frame. They also claimed to have "punished" (as per translation) many of the Turkish troops, although the actual extent of damage and casualties inflicted during the attack cannot be confirmed based on the footage provided.
The PKK/HPG are fighting for autonomy from oppressive Turkish governance of ethnic Kurdish people and lands within Turkey's political borders. Although initially driven by communist ideologies, the PKK have shifted to a "democratic confederalism" in which state and authoritarian institutions are abolished and the means of production and democratic political structure are all managed by decentralized unions, councils, and associations at the local level.