Posted on 08/19/2006 2:08:14 AM PDT by HAL9000
LONDON, August 19 (IranMania) - Kurdish rebels on Friday accused Iranian forces of shelling several villages inside northern Iraq, killing two civilians and forcing many to flee the region after two days of strikes, AFP reported."Iranian forces have since 9:00 am (0500 GMT) hit several villages near the mountainous Qandil region and killed two civilians," said Rustom Judi, a local leader from the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
He said the Iranian artillery bombarded "eight villages, and today was the second day of strikes in the same region" on the Iranian border.
Judi said many villagers fled their homes after the strikes, adding that the attacks had stopped at around 4:00 pm Friday.
For more than a year, Iran, which has its own Kurdish minority, has been battling infiltrations by Pejak, a Kurdish group linked to the PKK.
The PKK, which has been blacklisted as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States, has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984 when it took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey.
Ankara has long urged Washington and Baghdad to root out the PKK from northern Iraq, but it has been told that violence in other parts of the conflict-torn country is more of a priority.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984.
Iran is bound by treaty with Turkey to fight the outlawed PKK. In return, Turkey has pledged to fight the Iranian armed opposition group, the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen.
Kurds make up the majority in three adjacent areas within Iraq, Iran and Turkey.
This Kurdish situation is very hot, even more serious on the Turkish border.
ALL of the middle east has only crazy people.
Hmm... Just a thought, but could the PKK be tying what Zarqawi and AQ in Iraq wanted to do (push the U.S. and Iran into direct conflict with each other and take advantage of the ensuing ruckus). Now, I know the PKK is more of a commie group than islamic one, but it seems conceivable to me that they (the PKK) could have very well been the ones firing on the Kurds in order to provoke a response. After all, the VC in Vietnam sure didn't mind killing its own people.
Also, I'm sad to see that Turkey made a deal with those nutjobs in Iran regardless of how they feel about the Kurds. I wonder when that agreement was signed.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
Pretty convoluted.
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