Posted on 08/04/2005 9:34:04 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
The Iranian government has deployed large numbers of troops in cities in the northwestern region which borders Iraq in an effort to quell three weeks of civil unrest that has left up to 20 people dead and more than 300 wounded, according to reports from dissident groups. They said as many as 100,000 state security forces, backed up by helicopter gunships, had moved into the region to crack down on pro-Kurdish demonstrations.
The claims, from Kurdish groups in Iraq, could not be independently verified, and Iranian officials remained silent about the unrest. The state-owned news agency IRNA said the trouble was due to "hooligan and criminal elements".
News agencies have reported trouble in the northern areas over the past two weeks, though the scale of the unrest has been unclear.
The protests in the Kurdish areas came after the killing of a Kurdish activist by Iranian security forces in the city of Mahabad on July 9. Since then, anti-regime demonstrations have erupted in the mainly Kurdish towns of Sanandaj, Mahabad, Sardasht, Piranshahr, Oshnavieh, Divandareh, Baneh, Sinne, Bokan and Saqiz.
In the worst violence so far, Iranian security forces are reported to have killed at least 12 Kurdish demonstrators and injured more than 70 in a clash in the city of Saqiz on Wednesday.
Witnesses said the unrest began just before noon as hundreds of protesters attacked a paramilitary outpost with sticks and stones. Government buildings, including the governor's office, were also attacked and some were ransacked.
Protesters then gathered in the main square, chanting "Down with Khamenei", the country's supreme leader.
Witnesses said that security forces responded with live bullets, and some protesters were fired at by helicopters.
Kurdsat, an Iraqi-Kurdish satellite channel based in Sulaimaniyah, reported yesterday that police had detained as many as 1,200 people after the incident.
Further unrest was feared yesterday in Bokan and Sinne, where up to 6,000 special forces soldiers were said to have gathered. Opposition leaders appealed for calm and called for the international community to put pressure on the Iranian authorities to halt the crackdown.
In a statement, the Kurdistan Democratic party of Iran, which is based in Iraq, urged "international organisations, human-rights supporters and the international community to make efforts to stop the bloodshed of the Iranian Kurdish people by the Islamic republic regime of Iran".
"This could turn into yet another tragedy for our people," said Hussein Yazdanpanah, the general secretary of the Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan, who is in exile in the city of Irbil.
"Our people want their rights and to demonstrate and work for them peacefully. But they are being met with a brutal force."
Iranian agents provocateur were moving among the protesters, he said, "ensuring chaos and violence and thereby justifying an extreme reaction from Iranian authorities".
Iran is home to about 6 million Kurds - almost 10% of the population - who say they face discrimination and repression at the hands of the theocratic rulers in Tehran.
A UN report released last Saturday said authorities were denying basic amenities to Iran's ethnic and religious minorities and in some cases seizing land.
"Regions historically occupied by Kurds ... seem to suffer disproportionate inadequacy of services such as water and electricity and unsatisfactory reconstruction efforts," the report concluded.
But Tehran dismisses such charges and is extremely sensitive about any hint of ethnic unrest, particularly by the Kurds. Anti-government demonstrations are dealt with harshly.
Mahabad, where the activist Shwana Sayyed Qadr was killed, was the capital of the short-lived Republic of Kurdistan, established by the Kurdish leader Mustafah Barzani in 1945. It has since become a symbol for Kurdish nationalism.
A good time to greatly step up the pressure on the evil Mullahs! Surely there must be some ways we can make life worse for the scumbags..... I'd start with some cruise missiles into all known locations of the "Revolutionary Guards" who are surely behind transfers of explosives and weapons that are killing our people in Iraq.
A small scale strike against Mullahs' strongholds will boost Iranians ego to rise against the regime!
I do think it might help a lot!
Now, this is where the students should get active in the southern part of Iran. The troops have all been sent up north, activities stepped up in the south would demand that troops be sent there to quell the riots. As the troops move to the south, those in eastern Iran should kick up.
NEWS PING~~~~~~~~!!!
Iranian officials, when asked about this news, replied: What do you care?
http://memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=787
that reads like a SNL skit....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1457158/posts
check this out -
Blam, SC, some more "Balkan" areas! Kurds, AFAIK are a separate grouping of Irani people -- supposedly descended from the Medes and related to the Persians, the Tajiks and also the Azeris.
thanks for the ping. prayers for freedom for Persia!
We've heard that kind of talk for two decades now. It won't happen without us pumping weapons into Iran. A good start would be IEDs against their leaders...
Send Nancy Palosi to Iran to resolve the situation....
Notice how the ISM wont go to Iran to protest against the Mullah's.
"hooligan and criminal elements"
That's who's running Iran, so what's this story really about? ;')
Anyway, Kurds come from milk, and Medes come from honey. I thought everyone knew that.
[rimshot!]
send Helen Thomas!! The Mullahs will be terrified.... now we know what Burkhas are for....
Yes, but she doesn't wear one....
Besides, burkhas don't impede speech!
Well, with all the evil thugs of
Shah Khamenei, are up in the Northwest...
It seems a perfect time for the
lovers of freedom down in the *south*
to take advantage of the missing
support troops, and raid arms depots,
hang hard line clerics, and attack the
Basiji thugs with wires, and Bazzari
servants warehouses, of the hated
regime of tyrant assassins.
>;-)
The failure of liberals and the left to support the Iranian struggle for democracy is one of the great betrayals of our age.
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