'Those who did this are not human': people of Cizre return to ruins

The stench of death and the smell of gunpowder rose from mounds of rubble as residents of the Turkish town of Cizre returned to find many of their homes obliterated in the wake of Turkey’s efforts to crush Kurdish militants. At least one body was still lying inside a ruined house.

Cizre is one of a handful of mainly south-eastern Kurdish districts where Turkey’s security forces, backed by tanks, have conducted extensive operations against militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ party, or PKK. The militants want autonomy for Kurds in Turkey’s south-east and had raised barricades, dug trenches and planted explosives to protect areas where they had aspired for self-rule.

On Wednesday, the Turkish military eased the 24-hour curfew it imposed on 14 December, although it still holds from 7.30pm to 5am. The reprieve comes three weeks after authorities on 11 February declared the successful conclusion of military operations to stamp out the rebels. The town of 132,000 near the banks of the Tigris river and the borders of Syria and Iraq has been the worst hit in terms of the scale of fighting and the casualty toll. The level of damage seen in some districts on Wednesday evoked the early days of the war in neighbouring Syria, with buildings gutted by shelling or partially collapsed.

The army says more than 600 Kurdish rebels were killed in Cizre. Human rights groups say 92 civilians were killed in the town during the military operation and another 171 bodies have been found since hostilities ended.

The first wave of residents returned to the town at dawn on Wednesday, their vehicles loaded with personal belongings and children. Police carefully inspected their documents as well as the contents of their cars and bags. What the returnees found shocked them.

Shell casings littered the streets of the Sur district, where residents found the corpse of an unidentified male. The stench of death also rose from a collapsed building in the same area. Residents said security forces had demolished the building’s basement, which was being used as a shelter.