BBC Monitoring

The Turkish overnight shelling of the Kurdistan Region border areas was widely covered in the Kurdish media on 16 December, but no official reaction has been observed as at 1230 gmt on that day.

Websites

The Kurdish media websites of Sbay, Awene, Chawder, Aso and PUKmedia all reported the story and pointed out that the strikes claimed the life of a woman, named as A'ishah Ali, and left several others, at least four, injured.

The PUKmedia quoted a security source as saying that in addition to areas around the Qandil Mountain, the shelling had also targeted the areas of Halwa, Betkat and Garawnerwa in the Duhok Governorate.

All the websites spoke of "extensive shelling" and said 8-12 fighter jets were involved in the strikes.

Sbay website quoted a PKK official as saying, on condition of anonymity, that "the PKK guerrillas were aware on Saturday [15 December] of possible shelling of the Qandil areas and alerted villagers beforehand".

The source added that "the guerrillas did not expect such an intense shelling though."

Independent Awene website quoted the Iraqi Kurdish forces spokesman, Jabbar Yawar, as saying "eight! warplanes took part in the strikes, which lasted for three hours".

Awene reported concerns by administrator of the border town of Qala Diza Husayn Ahmad that hundreds of families had been displaced.

Kurdistan Democratic Party-owned Khabat daily website also confirmed the name of A'isha Ahmad, adding that three other women had been injured and were now hospitalized in Arbil. It said the condition of one of them was critical.

TV stations

The two TV stations of PUK and KDP, KurdSat and Kurdistan Satellite TV respectively, carried on with their routine coverage, with no specific programming dedicated to the matter. The story topped the newscast of KurdSat and came second on Kurdistan Satellite TV after a report about President Barzani's meeting with the Iraqi ambassador to London.

Sources: As listed