SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AFP) – Iranian shelling of Kurdish border villages in northern Iraq left one child dead, a local official told AFP on Wednesday.
“Iranian artillery bombarded border villages on Tuesday evening killing a child and wounding his parents,” said Azad Wassu, mayor of Zarawa, 100 miles (160 kilometres) northeast of the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.
“The bombardment lasted nearly two hours… and targeted the villages of Rezka, Mara and Duwu,” he said.
Iranian attacks on the border usually target the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an Iranian rebel group, which operates out of bases in the area and is close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Blacklisted as a terror group by the European Union and the United States, the PKK took up arms for self-rule in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, triggering a conflict that has claimed some 44,000 lives.
PKK rear-bases in border districts of northern Iraq were the target of repeated attack by the Turkish and Iranian militaries in December and January.
Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat is the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, printed simultaneously each day on four continents in 14 cities. Launched in London in 1978, Asharq Al-Awsat has established itself as the decisive publication on pan-Arab and international affairs, offering its readers in-depth analysis and exclusive editorials, as well as the most comprehensive coverage of the entire Arab world.
Follow Me:
