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Iraqi Kurds flee border villages under
Iranian fire
20.8.2007
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August
20, 2007
MOUNT QANDIL, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds have fled remote mountain
villages near the country's eastern frontier as
Iranian gunners target separatist guerrilla bases,
local officials said Monday.
"About 150 families have left eight villages. We are
very concerned about the situation in the area. If
the shelling continues, we may have to declare an
emergency situation," said Hussein Ahmed, governor
of Qalaa Diza district.
"There was artillery fire in Haj Umran today on
Mount Qandil. Two shells fell in the night," said
local governor Ahmed Qader.
An Iranian helicopter crashed in the Qandil
Mountains near the border on Saturday. Rebels
claimed it was hit when it landed on landmines
planted on the Iranian frontier, whereas Tehran says
it crashed in bad weather.
Whatever the reason for the crash, which reportedly
killed six members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, it
seems to have triggered more intense fighting.
Kurdish villagers living on Mount Qandil have fled
their homes, trekking down the mountain on mules to
the relative safety of makeshift tents in the valley
outside the range of Iranian artillery.
Jhader Watman, a 57-year-old shepherd, said he and
his family of eight rescued what they could and
walked for two days and two nights to the valley
stream after shell fire destroyed their home in
Sheikh Eish, on Mount Qandil.
He admitted his village shelters fighters from the
banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a rebel group
mainly active in neighbouring Turkey.
"The PKK were hiding the same way we were hiding,
but warned us beforehand that our village may be
shelled. When we were shelled, the PKK returned fire
with machine guns and Kalashnikovs," he said.
"I was breaking bread when the shelling started. I
ran. My house was hit and destroyed. We salvaged
what we could.
One son took the sheep and ran. We followed carrying
what we could, food and bedding," said Aman Amed,
57.
Sipping her tea under a simple canvas tent, as dusk
drew in, she remembered the hardship of being forced
out of the village at the time of ousted Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein who brutally repressed the
Kurds.
"Because Saddam destroyed our village, I delivered
my children in a cave and now perhaps it will be the
same. Perhaps I'll see children delivered in this
valley," she said.
The family sold off sheep and scraped by with
donations from friends who raised 1,000 dollars,
which they said they had used to pay for an
operation on 18-year-old shepherd Rafur Sura, hit by
falling rock during the shelling.
Local PKK commander Mizen Amed said the guerrilla
group had declared territory under its control out
of bounds to visitors.
"Since August 14, Iranian forces have been shelling
and attacking the PJAK (Party of Free Life in
Kurdistan)," she said, referring to a PKK offshoot
based in northern Iraq and dedicated to carving out
a Kurdish homeland in Iran.
PEJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) , took up
arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdistan
province northwestern of Iran. Half the members of
PEJAK are Kurdish women.
Amed met journalists in a stone house well behind
rebel lines in the remote Qandil Mountains in Iraq's
autonomous Kurdish region.
"Because of what has happened in the last few days,
forces near where there are operations are more
active. Forces a little further away have stopped
work such as education and training," she said.
"Wherever an operation takes place, our forces close
to those areas have mobilised. Everybody becomes
active," she said.
The PKK, which frequently allows journalists to
visit their training camps and guerrilla units
operating on Mount Qandil on the Iran-Iraqi
Kurdistan border, denied access said, saying they
were unable to guarantee visitors' safety.
"We are not letting anyone inside the zone because
of developments, because it became a war zone and we
cannot take responsibility," Amed said.
"Guerrillas are constantly on the move and shells
have fallen close to where PKK personnel stay," she
said, describing shelling in places as "very heavy".
AFP
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