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Iranian forces enter Kurdistan-Iraq to
pummel Kurdish guerrillas
1.5.2006
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BAGHDAD, April
30, 2006 (AFP) , -- Baghdad on Sunday accused
Iranian forces of entering Iraqi territory and
shelling Turkish-Kurdish PKK guerrilla positions,
with the Kurds accusing Tehran of working with
Ankara to attack their movement.
"Iranian forces hit a border area called Haj Umran
and then entered five kilometers (three miles) into
Iraqi territory and hit the area of Lollan with
heavy artillery with 180 shells targeting PKK
positions," an Iraqi defense ministry statement
said.
The shelling was the second military attack on the
Kurdish guerrillas by Iranian forces in 10 days. The
previous attack on April 20 left two guerrillas dead
and another 10 wounded.
The Kurdish rebel group, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
who have dug-in in Iraq's northern
Kurdish-controlled area on the border with Iran and
Turkey, have warned Iran not to interfere in their
fight against Ankara's rule in southeast Turkey.
The leader of a group of PKK rebels, Rustom Judi,
told AFP in an interview that Iranian forces have
"no reason" to fight the PKK because "fighting has
been between our men and soldiers inside Turkey, far
from the Iranian border."
But Iran is bound by treaty with Turkey to fight the
outlawed PKK, which has waged a 15-year insurgency
against Ankara for self rule in Turkey's mainly
Kurdish southeast.
In return, Turkey has pledged to fight the Iranian
armed opposition group, the Iraq-based People's
Mujahedeen.
Turkey says some 5,000 armed PKK militants have
found refuge in northern Iraq since 1999, when the
group declared a unilateral ceasefire after the
capture of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
The truce was called off in June 2004.
"I warn Iran that their aggression against our
party's positions in Iraq will have consequences,"
Judi said.
The details of casualties from Sunday's attack were
not yet known.
Kurds make up the majority in three adjacent areas
within Iraq, Iran and Turkey.
Tehran and Ankara have accused a number of
separatist rebel groups of exploiting
Kurdish-controlled areas in Iraq to launch attacks
inside their countries.
For around a year, Iran has been battling border
infiltrations by a Kurdish group called Pejak, which
Tehran says is linked to the PKK.
Reports claim at least 120 Iranian police were
killed and scores wounded in Kurdish rebel attacks
last year, many of them blamed on Pejak.
Meanwhile, Turkey has massed troops along the border
to intensify operations against PKK rebels who are
sneaking into Turkey in growing numbers with the
arrival of spring when snow melts and makes passage
through the mountains easier.
On Sunday the Iranian newspaper Kayhan reported that
four Iranian soldiers "were martyred in the Mahabad
area while fighting with anti-revolutionary forces
from the other side of the border."
Mahabad, situated close to Iran's border with both
Turkey and Iraq, is an historic center of Kurdish
nationalism.
Pejak confirmed reports of clashes with Iran saying
in a statement on Sunday that four Iranian troops
had been killed and four injured.
Turkey has long urged the United States and Iraq to
root out the PKK from its bases in the mountains of
northern Iraq, but it has been told that violence in
other parts of the conflict-torn country was their
priority.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on
Ankara during a visit last Tuesday to refrain from
unilateral action against the Iraq-based Kurdish
rebels, calling instead for renewed three-way
cooperation to fight the threat.
The Kurdish conflict has claimed more than 37,000
lives since the PKK launched its separatist campaign
in 1984.
Washington labels the PKK as a "terrorist"
organization.
AFP
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