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An Iranian army helicopter crushed near
Iraqi Kurdistan Region
18.8.2007
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August
18, 2007
Iranian Kurdistan, -- An Iranian army
helicopter crashed in bad weather in a mountainous
region near Iraqi Kurdistan border (northern Iraq)
in Haji Braim area in Iran near Qandil Mountain
located in Kurdistan autonomous region, killing six
military personnel, Iranian media reported on
Saturday.
Five people were injured in the crash, which
happened during manoeuvres involving Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guards on Friday, the ISNA news agency
reported.
Mohammad Hadisar, governor of the northeastern city
of Piranshahr, said the helicopter came down while
transporting troops and equipment and blamed it on
the weather and a "technical problem", ISNA said.
Another Iranian news agency, Mehr, said it crashed
during a military operation against the Party of
Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an Iranian offshoot
of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is
fighting for Kurdish autonomy in mainly Kurdish
southeastern Turkey.
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.
Mehr also said the helicopter crashed because of bad
weather and strong winds but added the armed forces
had inflicted damage against the rebel PJAK during
operations in the past few days.
In February, Iranian media said at least 13
soldiers, including two Revolutionary Guards
commanders, were killed when a military helicopter
crashed near the border with Kurdish region in
southern Turkey, the
Kurdish PJAK group said it had shot down
the aircraft
in February the Brussels-based Kurdish news agency Firat said.
Iranian media also blamed the February crash on bad
weather, but Iranian Kurdish rebels said they had
shot the helicopter down. PJAK rebels have bases in
the remote mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan region (northeastern
Iraq) from where they have launched attacks.
Various Iranian Kurdish rebel groups have fought a
low-level conflict against Tehran for many decades,
complaining of neglect and discrimination by the
central government.
The Revolutionary Guards are an ideologically driven
force, with a separate command structure from the
regular military.
The exiled president of Iran's largest Kurdish
opposition group PJAK
appealed for U.S. political and
military support for its campaign to topple Iran's
Islamic regime and create a new democratic, federal
government in Tehran.
In his first visit to Washington, Rahman Haj-Ahmadi,
president of the three-year-old Kurdistan Free Life
Party, said that the Iranian regime faced a growing
internal challenge to its power from the Kurds,
Azeris and other restive minority groups.
Reuters
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Īranź or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatź
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
The present leader of the organisation is Haji
Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the
members of PEJAK are women, many of them still in
their teens, and one of the female members of the
leadership council is Gulistan Dugan, a psychology
graduate from the University of Tehran. This is due
primarily to the fact that PJAK is strongly
supportive of women's rights. PJAK believes that
women must have a strong role in government and must
be on an equal level with men in leadership
positions.
More about PEJAK- Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan
KDPI
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdish
(Hīzbī Dźmokiratī Kurdistanī Źran) is a Kurdish
opposition group in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks
the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a
democratic federal republic of Iran.
The current
General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan is Mustafa Hijri
More about KDPI- Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
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