JINHA

NEWS CENTER - Five minutes after midnight, over 20 Turkish warplanes attacked the guerrilla positions in the Medya Defense Zones, hitting civilians in the surrounding area.

Bombing lasted until morning over the Medya Defense Zones positions of Kurdish guerrillas, striking multiple nearby civilian settlements. The assault was accompanied by censorships of a range of news websites.

The F-16 planes took off five minutes after midnight from the cities of Diyarbakır and Batman, first bombing the regions of Zap, Basyan, Gare, Avaşin and Metina. The planes then bombed Xinere and Kandil.

AHNA News Agency reports bombing in the Gare, Zap, Çemço, Metina, Haftanin and Avaşin regions. The bombing also struck civilian settlements in Şemdinli and Kandil, according to the TV channel Med Nuçe. According to ANF, the bombs struck civilian areas in Xakurke. Bombing also struck the Enze village in Kandil. There is still no information on the amount of damage. Some regions were struck multiple times; Gare has been bombed three times, Metina twice.

The press center of the HPG guerrilla forces released a statement on the bombing. "As the People's Defense Center Command, we announce that the ceasefire has been broken unilaterally by the Turkish state and army. On July 24, at approximately 23:00 at night, many warplanes belonging to the Turkish army began heavily bombing the Medya Defense Zones, especially the Behdinan region. As the heavy bombing continued uninterrupted there has also been bombing of the Kandil and Xakurkê areas since 01:00, in the middle of the night. With these heavy air attacks, there is no longer any meaning to the ceasefire. The results of the heavy bombings and the details of this attack will be shared with our people and the public as soon as possible," read the statement.

Meanwhile, as the bombing began late at night, the websites of a number of news organizations were blocked in Turkey. The websites of Dicle News Agency, Firat News Agency, Hawar News Agency, Rojews and the newspaper Özgür Gündem were all blocked and remain so in Turkey.

(fk/cm)