News On Iran & Its NeighboursIraqKurds say small unit of Iranian troops enters Iraq

Kurds say small unit of Iranian troops enters Iraq

-

Reuters: A small unit of Iranian soldiers has entered Iraqi territory in pursuit of Kurdish rebels in the north, officials in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region said on Friday.

By Shamal Aqrawi

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – A small unit of Iranian soldiers has entered Iraqi territory in pursuit of Kurdish rebels in the north, officials in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region said on Friday.

A spokesman for the Kurdish region’s security forces, known as peshmerga, said the Iranians had penetrated two km (1.2 miles) into Kurdistan’s Arbil province on Thursday with several military vehicles and a tank, and were erecting positions.

“This is a clear violation of Iraqi borders and the Iraqi government has to intervene,” said Major-General Jabbar Yawar.

Arbil governor Nawzad Hadi said: “We have informed the head of the (Kurdistan) regional government in order to take the necessary action.”

Kurdistan says Iran has been shelling the border region for more than a week, in pursuit of rebels from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which took up arms in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey.

Kurdish officials say some 300 families have fled the shelling and one woman has been killed.

Iran considers the PJAK, which seeks autonomy for Kurdish areas in Iran, as a terrorist group.

Like Iraq, Turkey and Syria, Iran has a large Kurdish minority, living mainly in the Islamic Republic’s northwest and west.

Kurdistan accused Iran of shelling during a Turkish operation on May 20 in which Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.

Iran and Iraq fought a war in the 1980s, but since the ouster of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 relations between the two majority Shi’ite Muslim countries have improved.

(Writing by Matt Robinson in Baghdad; editing by Andrew Roche)

Latest news

 Statistics show that New Year accidents’ deaths in Iran reached 585

Ahmad Shirani, the head of the Information and Traffic Control Center of the Iranian regime’s police, announced that the...

Land Subsidence in Critical Conditions in Isfahan

Mehdi Toghyani, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), pointed to the occurrence of land subsidence in various...

Iran’s Actual Inflation Rate Higher Than Official Stats

The state-run Donya-e-eqtesad newspaper, in a report analyzing the "general sentiment" regarding inflation in 2023, has stated that households...

Iranian Workers’ Monthly $136 Wages Can’t Cover $500 Expenses

The lives of a significant portion of the Iranian population are marked by uncertainty, largely because the Iranian economy...

Iranian Nurses Earn Twice Their Wages in Ride-Hailing Services

Reza Aryanpour, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) Health and Treatment Commission, highlighted the growing trend of nurses...

Iran: Unprecedented Record of 152 Million Liters of Gasoline Consumption Per Day

On March 19, Iran set a new historical record in gasoline consumption with 152 million liters consumed in one...

Must read

Britain voices concern over Iran enrichment plans

AFP: Britain said Sunday that Iran's plans to boost...

Tehran has defences against cruise missiles: Iran

AFP: The Iranian capital is equipped with air defences...

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you