Simona Foltyn:
Behind this mountain in Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region lies what authorities here call a red zone, a restricted area where Iraq's northern neighbor Turkey has been ramping up its military presence.
Driving up the mountain road, we reach the last checkpoint of the Iraqi border guard. The commander here isn't allowed to speak on camera, but tells us 12 new Turkish military bases have been set up here over the past year well inside Iraq's borders.
Beyond this point, he says, Turkish forces hold de facto control over Iraqi territory. We're around eight miles away from Iraq's border with Turkey, and this is essentially a militarized zone, where Turkey has been building a growing number of bases and outposts. And we can actually see some of them on those mountaintops behind me.
For decades, Turkey has carried out sporadic operations against the PKK, an outlawed Kurdish separatist movement considered a terror group by the U.S. and the European Union. The PKK aims to establish a Kurdish state across Kurdish majority parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran, and it has long used these mountains as a base for its insurgency against the Turkish government.
But the recent major expansion of Turkish military bases has raised fears of occupation. Down below the Turkish outposts, we find valleys emptied of civilians. Turkish operations have uprooted thousands of people in this area.
Ali Mahmoud is one of few shepherds who've stayed behind to look after their livestock.
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