Kurdistan: Iran airstrike on Iraq; Obama tested?

BREAKING NEWS ...

DProgram: "MSM: Iran Launches Airstrikes Into Iraq" 

Iranian aircraft attacked three villages inside Iraq over the weekend. The airstrikes - Iran’s first on Iraqi soil since the U.S. invasion - could complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to normalize relations with Tehran.“The bombardments appeared to have targeted the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an Iranian Kurdish separatist group which has launched attacks on Iran from rear-supply bases in the mountains of northern Iraq,” AFP reports. Iran has attacked the Kurdish group before, with artillery. But this is the first time the Iranians followed up, with assaults from the air.“

The incident comes a week after reports of a clash between Iranian police officers and suspected PJAK fighters in the country’s western province of Kermanshah,” Al-Jazeera reports. “At least 10 policemen and 10 fighters were killed in the gun battle.”Details on the airstrikes remain sketchy. Voice of America says the attacks werecarried out by helicopters, which remained in Iranian airspace. Al-Arabiyah television, on the other hand, says it was “Iranian planes [that] raided those villages.”

It is a serious development because the Iraqi airspace is under the control of the US Air Force and under US protection.  So the raids are either approved by the United States, as was the case when a US nod was previously given to the Turkish Army, or such operation was a surprise by the Iranians.  According to eyewitnesses (...) >>>

May 7, 2009
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New York Times: "Turkey Bombs Kurdish Rebels in Iraq for 2nd Day, Kurds Say"

Turkish jets bombed separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq for the second day in a row, Kurdish security officials said Sunday, although there was no immediate confirmation from the Turkish military.

Related: "Turkey Bombs Kurds in Iraq; 2 Sides Differ on Casualties" - Jabbar Yawer, the deputy minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s security forces, said that the aircraft hit a remote border region 50 miles north of Erbil but that there were no civilian casualties because the area was deserted. >>>

December 23, 2007
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Yahoo! News: "Turkey: U.S. helped in PKK attack" (includes video)

Turkey's ambassador to the United States said Wednesday his country's air strikes this week against Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq were the result of real-time, actionable intelligence provided by the United States. (...) Responding to reports that Turkey didn't give the United States enough notice before the attack, he said the United States was informed by the Turkish military about the operation and the two sides "are in constant contact." Although it will take time to assess the damage to the PKK and the casualties, Sensoy said "there is no doubt" the PKK infrastructure has been severely weakened. >>>

20th Dec. 2007
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Yahoo! News: "Turkish army sends soldiers into Iraq" (includes video)

The Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation on Tuesday, Kurdish officials said. A Turkish official said the troops were still in Iraq by midmorning. (...) The troops crossed into an area near the border with Iran, about 75 miles north of the city of Irbil, said Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdistan's Peshmerga security forces. About 300 Turkish troops crossed the border at 3 a.m., said Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the regional Kurdistan government. He said the region was a deserted mountainous frontier area. >>>

18th Dec. 2007
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AFP: "Iranian FM expected in Turkey for talks on Kurdish rebels"

BBC: "Iraq to ban Kurd rebel operations"
(Updated: 23rd Oct. 2007)

CNN: "U.S. urges restraint after Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with PKK" (includes video)
(Updated: 22nd Oct. 2007)

Los Angeles Times: "Iraq may condemn Turkish move"
(Updated: 21st Oct. 2007)

Politeia: "Kurdistan: the Plot Thickening"
(Updated: 18th Oct. 2007)