Thursday, March 01, 2007
Iran threatens to cross into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels
Iran, Kurdistan, Security
(Bloomberg) Iran's forces may cross into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels if the government in Baghdad can't expel the militants from border areas, an Iranian military commander said. "I warn Iraq's Kurdish movements and anti-revolutionary armed insurgents who are linked with foreigners that Iraq's government must oust them from the region," Iran's state-run Mehr News agency quoted Yahya Rahim Safavi, who leads the country's Revolutionary Guards, as saying today.
"Otherwise the Revolutionary Guards, to protect the security of the country and Iranian people, will consider it as their right to chase and neutralize them beyond the borders," Safavi said. The Revolutionary Guards are the military unit most loyal to the Shiite Muslim clerics who control the Iranian government.
Iran's armed forces have regular clashes with Kurdish rebels in the northwest of the country, mainly with members of the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK. Iranian forces killed three local PJAK chiefs Feb 26., Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. "PJAK, which calls for official recognition for Iranian Kurds, in 2005 reportedly killed at least 120 Iranian soldiers inside Iran," Control Risks, a London-based company advising businesses on investment hazards, said in an e-mailed note to investors today. "The group in 2006 launched attacks from both northern Iraq and Iran that are likely to have caused higher casualties," Control Risks said.
Fourteen Iranian military personnel died when their helicopter crashed last week during an operation against rebels close to the Turkish border, AFP said. Safavi made his comments at a ceremony in West Azerbaijan province to honor the personnel who were killed. PJAK has links with Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Iran and Turkey signed an accord in 2004 to combat the PKK and an armed Iranian opposition group in Iraq called the People's Mujahedeen.
"Otherwise the Revolutionary Guards, to protect the security of the country and Iranian people, will consider it as their right to chase and neutralize them beyond the borders," Safavi said. The Revolutionary Guards are the military unit most loyal to the Shiite Muslim clerics who control the Iranian government.
Iran's armed forces have regular clashes with Kurdish rebels in the northwest of the country, mainly with members of the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK. Iranian forces killed three local PJAK chiefs Feb 26., Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. "PJAK, which calls for official recognition for Iranian Kurds, in 2005 reportedly killed at least 120 Iranian soldiers inside Iran," Control Risks, a London-based company advising businesses on investment hazards, said in an e-mailed note to investors today. "The group in 2006 launched attacks from both northern Iraq and Iran that are likely to have caused higher casualties," Control Risks said.
Fourteen Iranian military personnel died when their helicopter crashed last week during an operation against rebels close to the Turkish border, AFP said. Safavi made his comments at a ceremony in West Azerbaijan province to honor the personnel who were killed. PJAK has links with Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Iran and Turkey signed an accord in 2004 to combat the PKK and an armed Iranian opposition group in Iraq called the People's Mujahedeen.
Labels: Iran, Kurdistan, People's Mujahedeen, PJAK, PKK, Revolutionary Guards, Yahya Rahim Safavi
