Clashes continue in South Kurdistan - UPDATE
Clashes continue in South Kurdistan - UPDATE
Clashes between Iranian army and PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) Kurdish guerrillas are continuing on Sunday in the Dola Qoke region. Yesterday it was reported that 21 Iranian soldiers died in the clashes and today it has been confirmed that at least 43 soldiers have been wounded.
According to local sources the Iranian army had launched a cross border operation against PJAK guerrillas on Saturday.
It has been confirmed that operations started on Saturday at 10am when the Iranian Army crossed 1km inside the Iraqi border in the area of Dola Koke/Zele.
Clashes are continuing in the areas of Dola Koke, Dasht Wezne and Zele, on Kandil Mountains, so the death toll could actually by higher.
The Iranian Army have been bringing soldiers, building roads and new military posts on the Iraqi borderline for a while now. In mean time, bombarding the civilians places in order to put pressure on the KRG to have share in design of the Iraq as a hole. Beside this, the developments surrounding Syria issue is also playing important role in the assault of the Iranian Army on the Iraqi borders.
It is understood that the Iranian army is supported in this operation by Turkey. There are also high rank Turkish officers and Special teams on the field playing active role within the Iranian army's assault on Iraqi border. In the clashes, the Iranian Army using heavy weaponry including tanks, kathyusa, obus, mortars and cobra helicopters against the PJAK guerrillas.
PJAK claimed to have lost two fighters while four others have been injured.
At least six tanks crossed the border near the town of Qala Dize into Iraqi Kurdistan.
Thousands of soldiers are massed on the borders of Haji Omran and Berdenaz, but at present no clashes were reported in these areas.
This is the largest operation carried out by the Iranian army on border areas under the pretext of fighting the PJAK.
The Iranian army has routinely bombarded the borders of the Kurdish region since 2007, but in recent weeks not a single day have passed without bombing.
On July 13, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, Jabbar Yawar, said that over 400 Kurdish villages have been evacuated due to the bombing by Iran and Turkey since 2007. Families have been forced to flee their villages, the official who requested the end of operations.
Iran and Turkey also conduct joint operations against the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the PJAK, often crossing the borders of three countries: Iran, Iraq and Turkey. On July 9, eight Turkish military vehicles had crossed the Iranian border in the region of Mako, a Kurdish city of East Kurdistan to bring support to Iran. Two PKK fighters had lost their life on June 10 during a joint operation by the Iranian army and the Turkish army.
Iran had threatened on Monday to take military action against the Iraq-based Kurdish rebel group PJAK, saying the head of Iraq’s Kurdistan region had handed the group land without telling the government in Baghdad.
A senior Iranian military official openly accused Masoud Barzani, the Kurdistan president, of “giving 300,000 hectares of land to the PJAK terrorist group without the knowledge of the central government in Baghdad,” the semi-official Fars news agency said.
“Iran reserves its right to target and destroy terrorist bases in the border areas,” he said. “This terrorist group carries out operations against the Iranian nation with the support of Iraq’s Kurdish regional government.”
Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, but since the overthrow in 2003 of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, relations between majority Shi’ite Iraq and predominantly Shi’ite Iran have improved.
According to local sources the Iranian army had launched a cross border operation against PJAK guerrillas on Saturday.
It has been confirmed that operations started on Saturday at 10am when the Iranian Army crossed 1km inside the Iraqi border in the area of Dola Koke/Zele.
Clashes are continuing in the areas of Dola Koke, Dasht Wezne and Zele, on Kandil Mountains, so the death toll could actually by higher.
The Iranian Army have been bringing soldiers, building roads and new military posts on the Iraqi borderline for a while now. In mean time, bombarding the civilians places in order to put pressure on the KRG to have share in design of the Iraq as a hole. Beside this, the developments surrounding Syria issue is also playing important role in the assault of the Iranian Army on the Iraqi borders.
It is understood that the Iranian army is supported in this operation by Turkey. There are also high rank Turkish officers and Special teams on the field playing active role within the Iranian army's assault on Iraqi border. In the clashes, the Iranian Army using heavy weaponry including tanks, kathyusa, obus, mortars and cobra helicopters against the PJAK guerrillas.
PJAK claimed to have lost two fighters while four others have been injured.
At least six tanks crossed the border near the town of Qala Dize into Iraqi Kurdistan.
Thousands of soldiers are massed on the borders of Haji Omran and Berdenaz, but at present no clashes were reported in these areas.
This is the largest operation carried out by the Iranian army on border areas under the pretext of fighting the PJAK.
The Iranian army has routinely bombarded the borders of the Kurdish region since 2007, but in recent weeks not a single day have passed without bombing.
On July 13, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, Jabbar Yawar, said that over 400 Kurdish villages have been evacuated due to the bombing by Iran and Turkey since 2007. Families have been forced to flee their villages, the official who requested the end of operations.
Iran and Turkey also conduct joint operations against the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the PJAK, often crossing the borders of three countries: Iran, Iraq and Turkey. On July 9, eight Turkish military vehicles had crossed the Iranian border in the region of Mako, a Kurdish city of East Kurdistan to bring support to Iran. Two PKK fighters had lost their life on June 10 during a joint operation by the Iranian army and the Turkish army.
Iran had threatened on Monday to take military action against the Iraq-based Kurdish rebel group PJAK, saying the head of Iraq’s Kurdistan region had handed the group land without telling the government in Baghdad.
A senior Iranian military official openly accused Masoud Barzani, the Kurdistan president, of “giving 300,000 hectares of land to the PJAK terrorist group without the knowledge of the central government in Baghdad,” the semi-official Fars news agency said.
“Iran reserves its right to target and destroy terrorist bases in the border areas,” he said. “This terrorist group carries out operations against the Iranian nation with the support of Iraq’s Kurdish regional government.”
Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, but since the overthrow in 2003 of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, relations between majority Shi’ite Iraq and predominantly Shi’ite Iran have improved.
