Iran Shelling Kurdish Border Towns

Iraq’s Kurdish Security Forces spokesman confirmed today that the border towns of Sanka Sar and Joman and surrounding villages have come under continued shelling by Iranian forces pursuing Iranian Kurdish rebels in the border region.

“Iranian troops did not make any incursion into the Kurdistan region, but the villages near the border have faced artillery shelling for the past week, displacing some 120 families from Joman near the border," said Major General Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga [Reuters].

On Sunday, Kurdish officials said one woman was killed and another wounded in shelling.

Iranian forces frequently clash with rebels of the PJAK.

Iraq Criticizes Iran’s Shelling of Kurds

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari today strongly criticized Iranian artillery barrages against Kurdish positions in border areas (AP). Zebari warned Iran that if the shelling continues it will negatively affect relations between the two countries.

The recent shelling of Kurdish villages by Iran started last week and has since intensified. (Please see yesterday’s entry on this blog.)

Fighting in Kurdistan

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurdish faction headed by Jalal Talabani, is reporting today that Iran has resumed heavy shelling of Iraqi Kurd areas near Iranian borders.

Iran contends that the presence in the area of Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), an Iranian Kurdish opposition group, is forcing it to attack the villages in Iraq Kurdistan region. The Kurdish Parliament on Tuesday condemned the shelling and called for an immediate ceasefire.

In what appears to be a coordinated move between Iran and Turkey, the Turkish forces have also attacked the Iraqi Kurdish villages. PJAK is the Iranian branch of PKK, Turkey’s radical Kurdish movement. PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by the US and the Europeans.

PJAK has been involved in a number of military operations against the Islamic Republic. PJAK claims that in the past two years they have killed more than one hundred members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in separate actions, including general officers of the IRGC.

In November 2006, journalist Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker claimed that PJAK is receiving military training and equipment from the US military and the Israelis who want to weaken the Islamic Republic.

According to reports from Kurdistan, the recent shelling of the Kurdish villages by Iran started last Wednesday and has since intensified. A number of Kurdish villagers, among them women and children, have fled their homes in search of safe heavens.