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London - Israeli
firms are not training Kurds or carrying out
commercial activities in northern Iraq, according to
a senior Kurdish official on Thursday. The Israeli
newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that private
security firms had sent experts to Iraqi Kurdistan
to train Kurdish security forces covertly.
In the last eighteen months, the report claimed,
Israeli companies established clandestine training
camps in northern Iraq as part of a million dollar
project with the regional Kurdish government.
Accordingly, dozens of Israeli experts were sent to
train Kurdish troops “in weapons, self defense and
anti-terrorism techniques.”
The Israeli defense ministry was quoted in the
article as saying that it had not issued any permits
for any Israeli company to work in Iraq.
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli foreign
ministry, cast doubt on the report. “As far as I
know no Israeli citizen is present in any shape or
form in Kurdistan. Because Israel and Iraq are
legally still at war, so it is not permitted for any
Israelis to visit Iraq,” he was quoted as saying by
Reuters news agency.
While it did not specify the source of its report,
the Israeli newspaper published pictures of men in
an unspecified location where it claimed that were
Israelis instructing Kurdish fighters how to use
arms and were repairing a vehicle at an airport.
Allegedly, the men were former members of Israel’s
elite and covet forces who entered Iraqi Kurdistan
from Turkey.
The report also claimed Israeli companies were
involved in telecommunications and infrastructure
projects such as building a new international
airport in Erbil which will be called “Hawler
airport.”
Kurdish authorities were allegedly keeping the
collaboration secret because of fears that it might
encourage attacks by al Qaeda.
Making up an estimated 20% of the population, the
Kurds in Iraq have enjoyed self-rule since the Gulf
war in 1991.
In a telephone conversation with Asharq al Awsat on
Thursday, Dr. Fuad Hussein, an influential Kurdish
leader rubbished the report as “totally untrue.”
Erbil’s airport, he said, was “open to all and with
at least three airplanes landing everyday, from
Baghdad and different Arab and European capitals. It
is used by Iraqis, both Kurds and Arabs. If Israelis
were in the airport, their presence would not have
gone unnoticed.”
He emphasized that “airport employees, men and
women, including the security forces, are Iraqi
Kurds.”
“The Kurds do not need instructors to train them in
light weapons. They have been in a state of war
since 1961. Thousands know how to use all sorts of
weapons, including heavy weapons.”
“If we needed military training, we would ask
countries with which we have established relations,
including military relations”, Hussein added. He
revealed that troops from South Korea were currently
present in Kurdistan as part of the multinational
forces in Iraq.
Asharq al Awsat
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