Second Kurdish Conflict Boils on Iran Border

October 23, 2007 New York Times Richard A. Oppel Jr.
BAGHDAD -- Deadly raids into Turkey by Kurdish militants holed up in northern Iraq are the focus of urgent diplomacy, with Turkey threatening invasion of Iraq and the United States begging for restraint while expressing solidarity with Turkish anger. Yet out of the public eye, a chillingly similar battle has been under way on the Iraqi border with Iran. Kurdish guerrillas ambush and kill Iranian forces and retreat to their hideouts in Iraq. The U.S. offers Iran little sympathy -- Tehran even says Washington aids the Iranian guerrillas, a charge the U.S. denies. True or not, that conflict, like the Turkish one, has explosive potential. On a recent trip to the Iran-Iraq border, Salih Shevger, an Iranian Kurdish guerrilla, and his comrades recounted how they ambushed an Iranian patrol a few days before, killing three soldiers and capturing another. "They were sitting and talking on top of a hill, and we approached, hiding ourselves, and fired on them from two sides," said Bayram Gabar, who commanded the raid. The guerrillas from the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK, have been waging a deadly insurgency in Iran; they are an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, called the PKK, the Kurdish guerrillas who fight Turkey. While the U.S. calls the PKK terrorists, guerrilla commanders say PJAK has had "direct or indirect discussions" with U.S. officials. A bodyguard for Biryar Gabar, one of 11 members of the group's leadership, said officials of the group met with Americans in Kirkuk last year. Iranian officials have accused the U.S. of supplying the fighters and using them in a proxy war, but the "consensus is that U.S. forces are not working with or advising the PJAK," said a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Cmdr. Scott Rye of the Navy. Because the PKK is on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations and aiding such groups is illegal, the U.S. is eager to avoid any hint of cooperation with the PJAK. Guerrilla leaders said the U.S. classifies the PKK as a terrorist group because it is fighting Turkey, an important U.S. ally, while the PJAK is not labeled as such because it is fighting Iran. In fact, the two groups appear to a large extent to be one and the same, and share the same goal: fighting campaigns to win new autonomy and rights for Kurds in Iran and Turkey. They share leadership, logistics and allegiance to Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK leader imprisoned in Turkey. The leader of the PKK, Murat Karayilan, said the PJAK fighters had killed at least 150 Iranian soldiers and officials in Iran since August.

EU Voices Concern Over Human Rights Situation in Iran
October 23, 2007 Kuwait News Agency KUNA

The European Union expressed Tuesday deep concern at what is said was "growing repression against all groups which exercise their right to freely express their opinions, and at the escalation of restrictions on freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the Islamic Republic of Iran." Observers were quick to point out that the strong EU broadside against Iran signals a deterioration in ties between Brussels and Tehran. It comes the same day when EU foreign policy chief is set to hold talks with Iranian negotiators on Iran's nuclear programme in Rome. The EU Presidency statement said it "condemns the closure of newspapers, magazines and of the Iranian Labour News Agency, as well as the arrest and persecution of journalists, web bloggers, and Human Rights Defenders for exercising their right to freedom of expression." The EU urged Iran to comply with its international human rights commitments and called on the Iranian authorities to review the announced restrictions for the next Majlis election campaign in order to ensure free and democratic elections.