Cold War Veterans Blog

Iran, Kurd rebels and the CIA

Excerpt from From Holland to Kurdistan

Photo:Al Jazeera witnessed mock attacks against Iranian forces by Komala peshmerga's.



Iranian Military May Pursue Kurdish Rebels Into Iraq (Update1)

By Marc Wolfensberger and Ladane Nasseri

Feb. 28 (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 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,'' Revolutionary Guards leader Yahya Rahim Safavi was cited as saying today by state-run Mehr News. ``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.''

Iran's armed forces have regular clashes with Kurdish rebels in the northwest of the country, mainly members of the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK. Iranian forces killed three local PJAK chiefs Feb. 26, Agence France-Presse reported.

``PJAK, which calls for official recognition for Iranian Kurds, in 2005 reportedly killed at least 120 Iranian soldiers inside Iran,'' London-based Control Risks, which advises businesses on investment hazards, said in a note to investors today. ``The group in 2006 launched attacks from both northern Iraq and Iran that are likely to have caused higher casualties.''

Ethnic Kurds across a contiguous area that includes parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey have sought self-determination for the region, which they call Kurdistan.

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.

Turkish Links

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. [Which is trying to get support from American neocons]

Iran may participate in a conference on Iraqi security next month if the meeting is ``in the interest'' of Iraq, top Iranian security official Ali Larijani said today. Syria also will take part in the meeting, AFP cited the government in Damascus as saying. U.S. diplomats also will attend the conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.

The meeting will mark the first time that the U.S. has sat in Baghdad with Iran and Syria to look at Iraq's future, an initiative that lawmakers and a bipartisan panel of U.S. leaders have sought.

Attacks in Iraq

Iran's role in majority-Shiite Iraq has been under scrutiny, with the Bush administration accusing the Revolutionary Guards of supplying Iraqi Shiite militias with tank-busting weapons that have been used against U.S. troops. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington that the issue will be ``at the top of our list'' in any talks on security in Iraq. Iran rejects the accusation it is fomenting violence in Iraq.

The Revolutionary Guards are the military unit most loyal to the Shiite Muslim clerics who control Iran.

The dispute adds to tension between Iran and the U.S. over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. and some of its allies allege Iran is using the development of nuclear power to hide a weapons program, in contravention of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran denies the accusations.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted Dec. 23 to impose sanctions against Iran over the nuclear work and ordered it to halt uranium enrichment by Feb. 21. A measure for tougher sanctions is being discussed by the council's permanent members, following Iran's failure to meet last week's deadline.

To contact the reporters on this story: Marc Wolfensberger in Tehran at mwolfens@bloomberg.net ; Ladane Nasseri in Tehran atlnasseri@bloomberg.net

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