Friday, October 10, 2008

Pasdaran Peppers Kurdish Fighters with Artillery Fire- Updated

From Bloomberg:
Iran's Revolutionary Guards bombarded Kurdish fighters in an area along the nation's border with Iraq, Hurriyet newspaper reported.

The shelling, which lasted about an hour, targeted camps of the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK, in the Kandil mountains, Hurriyet said citing unidentified local officials. PJAK has links with Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which also has bases there.

Iran and Turkey say they are cooperating against Kurdish militants who are seeking a homeland across a region that includes parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.


Update: From AP:
Four Kurdish rebels have been killed in clashes with members of the Islamist volunteer Basij militia in a village in Kordestan province in western Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

The clashes took place Tuesday evening between Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) rebels and Basij volunteers in Tijtij village near the town of Marivan, IRNA said.

Iranian forces have in recent years engaged in a series of deadly clashes with PJAK which operate from rear-bases in northeastern Iraq.

The rebel group has close links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Iran has in recent years seen an upsurge in unrest in several regions with ethnic minority populations, including Baluchestan in the southeast, Arab-populated Khuzestan in the southwest, as well as Kurdish-inhabited areas.

Iranian officials have accused Britain and the United States of being behind the increase in violence.

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