Free Republic

Iran shelled Kurdish rebel positions in a remote area of northern Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region Saturday, a spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga border guards said. "They fired shells at the mountain area of Choma Sar. There were no casualties because it is a mostly unpopulated area," Jabbar Yawar said. The shelling started at around 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT) and continued for more than an hour. Border guards also spotted Iranian military helicopters bombing an area just inside Iran. The aircraft did not cross into Iraq, he said. Iranian officials did not immediately comment. The shelling followed clashes between...

In northern Iraq, Sunni Arab terrorists have changed their tactics recently, moving about in the open much more frequently. This has made them vulnerable to attack by helicopter gunships. As a result, in the last two weeks of March, U.S. AH-64 helicopter gunships made 25 attacks on these armed groups, killing at least 25 and wounding many more. When attacked, the terrorists will scatter, aborting any operations they were in the midst of. The enemy had earlier learned that, to move around, they had to do so without carrying weapons and in small groups. But this made carrying out attacks...

BAGHDAD —  U.S. bombers and jet fighters unleashed 40,000 pounds of explosives during a 10-minute airstrike Thursday, flattening what the military called safe havens for Al Qaeda in Iraq on the southern outskirts of the capital.The strikes, carried out above approaching U.S. and Iraqi troops, was part of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a nationwide campaign launched Tuesday against Al Qaeda in Iraq.The air raid was followed by a ground attack that led to 12 arrests and the discovery of two houses used to torture kidnap victims, according to an Iraqi army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2007 – Iraqi security forces have made much progress toward readiness in the past year within Multinational Division North’s area of responsibility, a top official in the region said today. Speaking to military analysts via teleconference from Baqubah in Diyala province, Army Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding general for operations of Multinational Division North, called the change “significant.” Baqubah is about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad on the Diyala River. Four Iraqi army divisions are in the region, which is about the size of Pennsylvania. “We are starting to see the key measure of effectiveness, …...

The people of the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan are anxious about increasing American talk of withdrawing at least some troops from the country. The American decision not to stay and protect the Kurds at the end of the first Gulf War left them vulnerable to genocidal attacks by Saddam Hussein's forces. Australian lawyer Jonathan Morrow has been working for the Kurdish regional Government of Iraq on oil treaties for the last couple of years, after helping form East Timor's constitution. He tells the ABC's Mark Colvin the relatively normal and prosperous life of this unusual part of Iraq could...

The leader of Iraq's Kurdish region warned Tuesday of a "real civil war" if the central government does not implement a constitutional clause on the future of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city claimed by the Kurds. Control over Kirkuk and the surrounding oil wealth is in dispute among the city's Kurdish, Arab and ethnic Turkish populations. Nationally, the dispute pits the Kurds, who want to annex it to their autonomous region in northern Iraq, against the country's Arab majority and its small minority of Turks, known locally as Turkomen.

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2007 – The Iraqi soldiers and units working with the Multinational Division North are "holding firm," the director of operations for the division said today from his headquarters in Tikrit. "They are in the fight. They're doing what they're told. They're following their leaders," Army Brig. Gen. John Bednarek said. "But more importantly, as we've known for years that they have that direct link and rapport with the citizens that the coalition forces do not have, they can get that immediate link, ... the human dimension, that information potentially leading to intelligence." Bednarek, the 25th Infantry Division’s...

Turkish troops shelled a border area in northern Iraq early Sunday in an attack on Kurdish rebels based there, an Iraqi Kurdish leader said. The leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, said there was shelling by Turkish troops on Kurdish areas but no incursion. "We reject any interference in Iraqi affairs and we do not accept any presence of Turkish forces on Iraqi lands. There was shelling by the Turkish troops on Kurdish areas. The Turkish army did not enter Iraqi territory yet but if they did, we would consult the Iraqi government and deal...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2006 – Continual training with coalition forces has increased the capabilities of the Iraqi army and police in northern Iraq and allowed the local forces to take responsibility for more territory and work toward the future of the country, the U.S. commander in the area said today. “In an area of responsibility that exceeds 47,000 square miles, we have leveraged the full spectrum of assets in order to engage the population and neutralize the enemy,” Army Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Turner, commander of Multinational Division North, said in a news conference via satellite from Iraq. “Iraqi security...

A smiling child is part of the new ad campaign that Kurdistan hopes will bring tourists to the region.The Iraq We Haven't SeenThe Kurdistan regional government is rolling out a national media blitz this week: "Kurdistan: The Other Iraq," complete with cable television ads, print ads and a national tour by the head of its development office to attract investment and tourism to its northern Iraq region. "The Other Iraq" -- despite echoes of the pork industry's "the other white meat" ads -- was specifically chosen to counter "the public perception of Iraq as a violent and dangerous place" plunging...

SULAIMANIYA, 30 May (IRIN) - Kurds, Turcomans and Christians from northern Iraq have established independent organisations that aim to reduce influence of sectarian militias operating in the area. Two of the organisations are the mixed Peace Union for Iraqis(PUI) and Kurdish Autonomous Freedom Organisation (KAFO). "Iraqis in the region have begun to unite, without consideration of ethnic background, to prevent sectarian violence from spreading," said PUI member Dorah Muhammad, 38, from a village in northern Kurdistan near the Turkish border. "And we're asking the government to take action to clamp down on the militias." The newly-formed organisations, whose members include...

/26/2006 - FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq (AFPN) -- In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Airmen from the 332d Air Expeditionary Wing are using their construction expertise to help the U.S. and Iraqi governments and the U.S. Army. The 557th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron is deployed in support of the Army's 555th Combat Support Brigade (Maneuver Enhancement) here. Red Horse stands for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operations Repair Squadron Engineer. "Red Horse is a heavy construction outfit that directly supports combat air power worldwide," said Senior Master Sgt. Brian Richardson, Red Horse airfields manager. "They provide air component commanders...

ERBIL, Iraq - It's Friday at dusk. People are strolling through the gardens, lounging on the grass, reading, eating snacks and chatting near the refreshment stand. Zirar Abdullah poses his young son and daughter on the playground spinner, then snaps their picture in the perfectly diffused golden light. "I come here with my family every Friday," Abdullah says. "I feel very secure. I feel free to do what I like." It seems very much the picture of tranquility, this public park in the city of Erbil in predominantly Kurdish northern Iraq. But the setting becomes even more remarkable with the...

MOSUL, Iraq (Army News Service, Nov. 14, 2005) – Two insurgent mortar teams were captured near Baqubah and 76 other suspected terrorists were detained in northern Iraq this past week. Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Forces from Task Force Freedom detained 76 suspected terrorists and seized a number of weapons during operations in northern Iraq Nov. 9-14. Iraqi Police along with Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment detained 24 individuals suspected of terrorist activity and seized AK-47s during separate operations in Tal Afar Nov. 10-11. Iraqi Army Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division detained 15 individuals...

With a population of 5 million in an area larger than Switzerland or twice the size of New Jersey, it is surprising that this region remains largely undiscovered and commercially untapped. The Government and the peoples of Kurdistan invite you to discover their peaceful region, a place that has practiced democracy for over a decade, a place where the universities, markets, cafes and fair grounds buzz with progress and prosperity and where the people are already sowing the seeds of a brighter future. Update on Developments in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq The Kurdistan Region in Iraq is developing at...

The Kurd region of Iraq begins a quest for investment

TIKRIT, Iraq, Nov. 2, 2005 – Task Force Band of Brothers and the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) officially took command of military operations in north-central Iraq in a ceremony at Forward Operating Base Danger here Nov. 1. The ceremony marked the transfer of authority from Task Force Liberty and the 42nd Infantry Division, a National Guard unit from New York that has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom for a year, to TF Band of Brothers. TF Band of Brothers is composed of two brigade combat teams and a combat aviation brigade of the 101st Airborne Division,...

MOSUL, Iraq (Army News Service, Nov. 1, 2005) – Multi-National Forces from Task Force Freedom killed two terrorists, wounded three, detained 11 suspected terrorists, and seized weapons caches in northern Iraq Oct. 28-31. Soldiers from Task Force Freedom were engaged with rocket-propelled-grenade and small-arms fire before returning fire and killing two terrorists. The Soldiers searched a vehicle, discovering AK-47s, a machine gun, hand grenades, and ammunition. Soldiers seize three caches Soldiers from the 503rd Military Police seized a cache consisting of rolls of detonation cord, numerous rounds of rocket-propelled grenade and mortar rounds, a mortar tube, an improvised rocket launching...

For a brief spell last year, small groups of American soldiers fresh off the battlefields of Fallujah and Samarra got a chance to rest and relax at the Jiyan Hotel in the highlands of Iraq. They could swim laps, play tennis, shoot pool and generally just chill as they looked out on the dramatic snow-covered peaks that have always been the refuge of the Kurds. ("We have no friends but the mountains" is a well-known Kurdish proverb.) Kids mobbed the soldiers, asking for candy; adults began every conversation with "My friend." Indeed, there are few places anywhere in the world...

IRBIL, Sept 25 (KUNA) -- The Multi-National Force (MNF) on Sunday announced the arrest of more than 80 suspected terrorists and seized a number of weapons caches in northern Iraq. An MNF press release said that the Iraqi and US forces seized four weapons caches, arrested 13 suspected terrorists, killed one terrorist, and wounded two others in several operations on Friday and Sunday. It added that the Iraqi Police on Friday clashed with gunmen and wounded two of them in Mosul, noting that one of them managed to escape, while the other was transported to hospital.