SULAIMANIYAH (Iraq), May 1: Iranian forces shelled Kurdish rebel positions in Iraq for a second day on Monday, forcing dozens of Kurdish families to flee attacks Tehran would neither confirm nor deny, an Iraqi Kurdish official said.
“Shelling was heavy in the night, and it has continued sporadically since 7:30am,” said Aref Ruzhdi, a senior official with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.
“Hundreds of Kurds have had to flee to safer areas.”
Iranian forces were targeting positions nearly 200 kilometres north of Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaimaniyah province held by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party which opposes Ankara’s rule in southeastern Turkey, Ruzhdi said.
The shelling reportedly took place north of Ranya, 25 kilometres inside Iraqi territory.
“I believe the Iranians are working in coordination with the Turkish military,” Ruzhdi said in comments that followed initial reports of shelling by a PKK leader in Iraq, Rustom Judi, on Monday.
“We have casualties,” Judi told AFP, but did not provide further details.
A school and a vehicle were destroyed in the bombardment of the mountainous area, Ruzhdi said.
On Sunday, Iraq’s defence ministry said Iranian forces had entered Iraqi territory and shelled PKK positions over a period of 24 hours.
Iran on Monday refused to confirm or deny its troops had crossed into Iraqi soil.
“I do not confirm the entry of our forces into the territory of neighbouring countries, notably Iraq,” government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters in Tehran.
“We have security cooperation accords with neighbouring countries and we act within the framework of these accords. There is no cause for concern over this kind of thing with neighbouring countries,” he said.
Iran is bound by treaty with Turkey to fight the outlawed PKK, which has waged a 15-year insurgency against Ankara for self-rule in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.—AFP
