AP: Iranian artillery shelled three border towns Sunday in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish rebels are believed to be operating, an Iraqi Kurdish official said. The Associated Press
BAGHDAD (AP) Iranian artillery shelled three border towns Sunday in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish rebels are believed to be operating, an Iraqi Kurdish official said.
The shelling hit the towns of Marado, Razda and Dolakoka and lasted for about two hours, said Azad Watho, a top administrative official in Sulaimaniyah city.
Watho, who is administratively in charge of the towns, said the shelling had targeted the fighters of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK, but had no more details.
Sulaimaniyah, one of three provinces that make up Iraq’s semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, is located about 160 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Tehran had no immediate comment on the report and officials could not be reached because of the official Nowruz, or New Year, holiday in the Persian nation. The Iranian army frequently shells villages in the mountains of northern Iraq where it alleges that rebels from PEJAK are based.
The PEJAK is a breakaway faction of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as PKK.
A former chief of the elite Revolutionary Guard has said Tehran considers shelling the guerrilla group its right in order to protect its security. Iran has said the PEJAK regularly launch attacks inside Iran from bases in Iraq in the Qandil Mountain area that borders Iran and Turkey.
