AL concerned over Iranian shelling of Kurdish villages

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The Arab League (AL) on Wednesday expressed its deep concern over the Iranian shelling of cross-border villages in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG) said in a statement. “These attacks are not in accordance with the good neighboring policy, enshrined in all international agreements,” according to the statement that was received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The AL has stressed that these acts do not serve the region’s stability and leave the door wide open for new tensions that harm efforts to achieve security and stability in Iraq and the neighboring region,” the statement added. A spokesperson for the Peshmerga forces in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Jabbar Yawer, said that Iranian artillery and warplanes had shelled border mountainous areas in Banjawin district, east of Sulaimaniya city. The shelling came a few days after PJAK fighters had killed 15 Iranians during attacks on Iranian targets in cross-border areas, according to PJAK sources. The PJAK, or the Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), is a militant Kurdish nationalist group based in northern Iraq that has been carrying out attacks in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and other Kurdish-inhabited areas. PJAK is a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (Koma Civakên Kurdistan or KCK), which is an alliance of outlawed Kurdish groups and divisions led by an elected Executive Council. The Kurdistan Workers Party (KK) is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the United States, NATO and the EU, and is also a member of KCK. Led by Haji Ahmadi, the PJAK’s objective is to establish a semi-autonomous regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran, Turkey and Syria similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG) in Iraq. The PJAK, an Iranian Kurdish party that broke away from the PKK, or Partiya Karekeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, in 2004 after the imprisonment of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, started its armed struggle against the regime in Iran with the aim of building a federacy for Iran’s Kurdistan. The PJAK has about 3,000 armed militiamen. SS (S)/SR 1