SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan-Iraq, May
1, 2006 - Iranian forces battling Kurdish rebels shelled parts of
northern Iraq's region of Kurdistan on Monday, the regional interior
minister said, the second attack in 10 days.
Othman Mahmoud said Iranian troops shelled
at least 10 villages in several border areas in Kurdistan (northeastern
Iraq).
"Families afraid of getting hurt managed to move to other safer
places," he said, adding there were no reports of casualties.
"We will never tolerate such intervention and we condemn it. This
shelling is a breach of the region's sovereignty."
The Turkish Kurd rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
which has bases on and around Qandil Mountain in the far northeast
of Iraq, said the assault was in retaliation for a rebel ambush that
killed five Iranian soldiers.
The claim could not be independently verified.
The PKK spokesman in Sulaimaniyah, Haval Asaad, said the shelling
lasted almost four hours.
"The situation is calm at the moment and the families have gone back
to their homes," he said.
Iraq's Defense Ministry on Sunday said Iranian troops had crossed
the border to attack PKK positions on April 21. Iran accuses the
Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), the PKK's Iranian wing, of
killing several of its soldiers.
But Iran denied attacking Iraqi territory last month.
"Such reports are denied," Iran's government spokesman Gholamhossein
Elham said on Monday, when asked about the Iraqi accusation and a
report by the Arabic-language Al Jazeera network that Iran was
mustering troops in Kurdish areas.
There was no immediate comment on the latest charges.
Iran's Kurdish territories along its border with Iraq have simmered
with unrest since July.
Several members of Iran's security forces and Kurds have died in a
string of street protests and gunfights.
Iran's mountainous western borders are always heavily militarized
because of ethnic tensions and smuggling.
Any breaches by forces from Shi'ite Muslim Iran are liable to fuel
accusations from Iraq's Sunni politicians that Tehran is meddling in
Iraq's affairs.
Reporting by Twana Osman in Sulaimaniyah
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