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Iraq

Two Iraqis killed, three wounded by Iranian artillery at border

2006-08-20

(KUNA) -- Two Iraqi civilians were killed on Saturday and three others were wounded when Iranian artillery shelled a number of villages near Qandeel Mountain at the Iraqi-Iranian border, an Iraqi Kurdish source told reporters. Turkish and Iranian tanks and troops had been deployed along the borders with Iraq over the past few weeks, and many Kurds had left their positions on the borders after four days of Iranian shelling.

Officials in Iraqi Kurdistan also reported that Turkey had shelled a number of Iraqi villages in the area, while fleeing families set up tents behind Qandeel Mountain and some six villages were totally evacuated.

And in Kirkuk, a police source told KUNA that an Iraq civilian was killed and five others were wounded when an explosive device blew up in front of one of the shops in Huwaija Market.

Furthermore, the US Army said in a statement that joint forces killed 97 terrorists and arrested 501 others in operations that commenced on July 9 in Baghdad. The statement added that 59 weapons caches were also discovered. According to the statement, 30,000 troops were taking orders from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki with the aim of instilling security in the capital.

Posted by:Fred

#6 The Kurds who are being fired upon are South Kurdistani civilians. This has been going on for days (and sporadically for several months), and has been all over Kurdish media. It also came out Friday in the Guardian. Today, it looks like the NYTimes finally figured out something is going on.

But, that's okay. PJAK managed to wax an Iranian officer last week. HPG managed to wax a JITEM NCO last week, and last night, HPG blew up a natural gas pipeline that runs from Iran through Turkey, as a warning to the enemies about their joint military operations against Kurds.

See Firat, or for those who have trouble with Turkish, see Washington Post, Reuters, and CNN.

If you read those three Western reports, you'll get the same details that are in the Firat report.

The attack should not be considered unusual, as Murat Karayilan, and others, have said that if Turkey and Iran attack Kurds, or any Kurdish faction, there would be retaliation.

Besides, as far as I know, there are only 200-300 US military in South Kurdistan. What are they going to do about almost 300,000 Mehmetciks and an unknown number of pasdarans?

Posted by: Azad 2006-08-20 22:06

#5 We need to give the Kurds counterbattery equipment to take out at least the Iranians.

How many more form-fitted casus belli must we ignore before finally bombing the crap out of Iran?

The Turks are double dealing. They claim the planes searched had no weapons while planes they let through have been seen unloading weapons and troops in Syria. Never, ever trust them.

Thank you for that BGO*, ed.

* Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious

Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-20 22:03

#4 The Turks are double dealing. They claim the planes searched had no weapons while planes they let through have been seen unloading weapons and troops in Syria. Never, ever trust them.

Posted by: ed 2006-08-20 09:54

#3 I wonder if we didn't give a tacit OK for the Turks to shell the PKK in return for their interception of Iranian 802 missiles a couple weeks ago.

Posted by: wondering 2006-08-20 07:33

#2 Something is not right about this.

Perhaps KUNA is intentionally mixing the good Kurds with the PKK Kurds to stir up some grief.

I do not doubt for a moment that the US commanders on the ground in Iraqi Kurdistan would very loudly object if the good-guy Kurds were receiving Turkish artillery fire - and report immediately any Iranian fire and request what was needed for counter-battery action.

As reported, I don't buy it.

Posted by: flyover 2006-08-20 03:20

#1 We need to give the Kurds counterbattery equipment to take out at least the Iranians.

Maybe an A-10 passover?
Something?

Posted by: 3dc 2006-08-20 03:13

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