Kurds flee homes as Iran shells Iraq's northern frontier

Kurds flee homes as Iran shells Iraq's northern frontier

Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks, artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities of Kurdish rebel bases.
Scores of Kurds have fled their homes in the northern frontier region after four days of shelling by the Iranian army. Local officials said Turkey had also fired a number of shells into Iraqi territory.

Some displaced families have pitched tents in the valleys behind Qandil Mountain, which straddles Iraq's rugged borders with Turkey and Iran. They told the Guardian yesterday that at least six villages had been abandoned and one person had died following a sustained artillery barrage by Iranian forces that appeared designed to flush out guerrillas linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who have hideouts in Iraq.

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Wonderful... The whole place is a zoo. :shk:

I think we are finally seeing the collapse of the whole house of cards-- a result, imo, of this administration's vacuous sense of world strategy...


[edit on 17-8-2006 by loam]

IIRC there have been exchanges between the Turkish Army and Kurds in Iraq too. Supposedly the PKK has been operating out of Northern Iraq.

Originally posted by loam



Wonderful...

The whole place is a zoo. :shk:

I think we are finally seeing the collapse of the whole house of cards-- a result, imo, of this administration's vacuous sense of world strategy...

[edit on 17-8-2006 by loam]

Why is that ?

According to the US Administration and other governments around the world it is ok to go after terrorists and i do believe that the PKK are a terrorist group.

Apparently the PKK has been operating in Northern Iraq and the US won't let Turkey remove them nor will the US do anything about it themselves. They do this because little Bush is throwing a hissy fit since Turkey didn't let the US use their bases for the invasion of Iraq. So now, this is what you get.

Frustrated by the reluctance of the US and the government in Baghdad to crack down on the PKK bases inside Iraq, Turkish generals have hinted they are considering a large-scale military operation across the border. They are said to be sharing intelligence about Kurdish rebel movements with their Iranian counterparts.

Ok, I am confusical as hell.

Is this Iran attacking Iraq, or is it something completly diffrent.

Are the kurds bad ?

Is Iran actually helping us ?


Someone please !!???

Originally posted by R3KR


Are the kurds bad ?

Here you go

Kurdistan Workers Party (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan or PKK), also known as KADEK and Kongra-Gel, is a militant group, aiming to create an independent Kurdish state in a territory (sometimes referred to as Kurdistan) that consists of parts of south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Iraq, north-eastern Syria and north-western Iran. Its ideological foundation is revolutionary Marxism-Leninism and Kurdish nationalism. It is an ethnic secessionist organisation using force and threat of force against both civilian and military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation internationally by a number of states and organisations, including the USA and the EU.[1] (The Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK) based in northern Iraq and operating in Iran is associated with the PKK.)

Please take a note at the second last sentence.

Thanks !
Knowledge is power.

~~

The PKK has more than 10 armed camps in northern Iraq,
the American Laws consider the PKK a terrorist organization...

www.turkishweekly.net...

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) carries out attacks on Turkey & Iran...
seemingly with the benefit of a U.S. 'hands-off' policy towards the PKK

One could suppose that this lingering but small conflict between, Kurds, Turks, Iranians....is an acceptable status-quo in the larger picture of the U.S. strategy
"re-making the middle east"
...in the model of the neocons (see Strauss & Bernard Lewis)

So back when Saddam was accused of gassing his own people, he was really just gassing the Kurds who are themselves terrorists?

So it looks like Turkey and Iran are doing to the Kurds what Israel was doing to Hezbollah.

So does that now mean Turkey and Iran have every right to bomb the sh1t out of Iraq's civilian infrastructure to make sure no Kurds escape?

Cheers

JS

[edit on 18-8-2006 by jumpspace]

Originally posted by loam
I think we are finally seeing the collapse of the whole house of cards-- a result, imo, of this administration's vacuous sense of world strategy...

Iran attacks Iraq and it is Bush's fault.

I saw the same line of reasoning in another thread when Hebollah attacked Israel.

from princeofpeace
So back when Saddam was accused of gassing his own people, he was really just gassing the Kurds who are themselves terrorists?[//quote]
Not all Kurds are terrorists. They are generally more well behaved in Iraq than the Shia or Sunnis.

jsobecky

I noticed you conveniently omit Turkey's actions.

Is it this administration's fault??? If the shoe fits...

Face it, this administration has played 'tic-tac-toe' while the world plays 'chess'...and you're fine with that?

Hmm, interesting story loam. So isn't this all the excuse Bush needs for Iran? And what in the hell is he going to do about Turkey, especially considering the fact that we have just had reports that Turkey agreed to letting an Iranian cargo plane loaded with C-802 missiles reach Damascus? (Turkey agreed on the condition that they could inspect the plane, at which point the Iranian plane declined to land in Turkey and returned home.)

Any day now we will hear it, just like we did in Iraq. No declaration of war, no nothing. Just the President coming on and saying "Well, because of our wonderful intelligence and evidence that Iran is supporting terrorists, we have started airstrikes on Iran."

Oh well, I guess there goes another 3,000 American troop's lives, along with another 25,000 wounded which will be forgotten and denied long term care. And with all those new troops gone, our homeland will sit even less defended with illegal immigrants killing, yes KILLING over 9,100 people a year here in the United States. Great.

Your life for Bush's political agenda. Yup, sure, go join the party and get your ass shot off. And we wonder why the military is having such a hard time getting new recruits that they are having to accept skin head nazis, illegal immigrants, and the lowest of life forms? While at the same time the Army can't even get the funds they need from the Republican Congress to re-equip the strategic reserve? At this point I am starting to think that I myself could do a better job, and I have no political experience whatsoever. Yup, TA for president. Go me. :shk:

Originally posted by loam
jsobecky

I noticed you conveniently omit Turkey's actions.

I keyed off of your thread title, loam.

Is it this administration's fault??? If the shoe fits...

Examine Iran's feet, why don't you? They are the ones shelling Iraq. I'll never understand those who condemn their own nation while remaining silent over a terroristic regime.

Face it, this administration has played 'tic-tac-toe' while the world plays 'chess'...and you're fine with that?

For the most part, the world sits on it's hands while conflicts rage. Their only involvement is to sell arms to the participants. GB and Australia are the most notable exceptions. France, Germany, and most of Europe do nothing but point fingers at the US.

Originally posted by Fett Pinkus

Why is that ?

According to the US Administration and other governments around the world it is ok to go after terrorists and i do believe that the PKK are a terrorist group.

Wrong! once again you have mixed up a group of people who have no home and want to establish one with terrorists. The type of terrorists we look for have no real goal other than destruction. They do not seek a homeland for their people and they havent nearly been wiped out by the Turks on a numbe rof occasions. :shk:

Originally posted by jsobecky
I'll never understand those who condemn their own nation while remaining silent over a terroristic regime.

I'll never understand those who blindly follow leadership and equate criticism of that leadership as an alignment with the other depraved idiots in the world.

Is Bush your God, King or Master? Or is he merely an elected official who can be held accountable for his incompetence and that of his administration?

:shk:

I'm done with the crap-slight-of-hand-logic that if you criticize Bush or this administration, then you must be one of them...or at the very least a sympathizer of the fascist nutcases of the world.

From where I sit, the distinction between the nutcases elsewhere and the ones found here narrows each day.



[edit on 18-8-2006 by loam]

Originally posted by XphilesPhanThey do not seek a homeland for their people and they havent nearly been wiped out by the Turks on a numbe rof occasions. :shk:

So apprarently fighting "terrorism" is only allowed when the US does it?

The type of terrorists we look for have no real goal other than destruction.

The Islamisist terrorists you speak of are not seeking merely destruction, many are seeking the establishment of an Islamic state. They also seek the removal of the US influence in the Middle East. So now that they have a reason, does that justify their actions?

You are trying to justify the PKK just because they have a similar reason.

Originally posted by loam
I'll never understand those who blindly follow leadership and equate criticism of that leadership as an alignment with the other depraved idiots in the world.

loam, your problem is that you automatically jump on Bush as the source of the world's problems, and ignore everthing else that happens. Very narrow, shallow thinking.

Take this topic, for example. You could have/should have addressed the fact that Iran attacked Iraq. Discussed their aggression. But instead, it's "Bush's fault". How sensible is that?

Don't attack me for your inability to criticize terrorism when it raises it's head. The next thing is, you'll be calling yourself one of the "true patriots" because you left Iran off the hook. We've heard it all before, dozens of times.

Originally posted by R3KR
Are the kurds bad ?

The kurds are a people in northern iraq, eastern turkey, and parts of northwestern iran. They have been agitating for a homeland, called "Kurdistan" for a long time now. Hussein ran that country with an iron first, and quashed the movement, more or less. THe turks have been fighting with insurgents in turkey for a long time, those insurgents carry out acts of terror.

Not all kurds are terrorists, not all kurds are bad. Like many peoples throughout the world, some of them are willing to kill for crazy ideas, others are damn fine people.

Is Iran actually helping us ?

No. Iran is taking advantage of the situation as part of a larger foreign policy strategy to oppose the US and destabilize the region. True, there are kurd seperatists within Iran, so that must also be motivating the attacks. These hostilities have been going on for a while now.

Jamuhn
They do this because little Bush is throwing a hissy fit since Turkey didn't let the US use their bases for the invasion of Iraq

I don't know about that. If Bush was really ticked at Turkey, he'd say "Sure Kurds, you can seperate from Iraq and form a soverign and independent Kurdistan." By not letting the Turks in, it keeps the kurds satiated enough to stay within Iraq politically. If the US allowed the Turks to storm in, the Kurds'd split, and Turkey would enter into civil war with its native kurds acting in concert with the iraqi kurds.

Its really irrelevant what the terror groups want. THe PLO wanted a political homeland, the IRA wanted a United Ireland, the kurd terror groups want a homeland, they all kill innocent women and children in order to punish a population they perceive as evil. They're all scum. Not all kurd nationalists are terrorists of course.