MOUNT QANDIL, Iraq, 21 August 2007 — Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds have fled remote mountain villages near the country’s eastern frontier as Iranian gunners target separatist guerrilla bases, local officials said yesterday. “About 150 families have left eight villages. We are very concerned about the situation in the area. If the shelling continues, we may have to declare an emergency situation,” said Hussein Ahmed, governor of Qalaa Diza district.
“There was artillery fire in Haj Umran today on Mount Qandil. Two shells fell in the night,” said local governor Ahmed Qader. An Iranian helicopter crashed in the Qandil Mountains near the border on Saturday. Rebels claimed it was hit when it landed on land mines planted on the Iranian frontier, whereas Tehran says it crashed in bad weather.
Whatever the reason for the crash, which reportedly killed six members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, it seems to have triggered more intense fighting. Kurdish villagers living on Mount Qandil have fled their homes, trekking down the mountain on mules to the relative safety of makeshift tents in the valley outside the range of Iranian artillery.
Jhader Watman, a 57-year-old shepherd, said he and his family of eight rescued what they could and walked for two days and two nights to the valley stream after shell fire destroyed their home in Sheikh Eish, on Mount Qandil. He admitted his village shelters fighters from the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a rebel group mainly active in neighboring Turkey.
“The PKK were hiding the same way we were hiding, but warned us beforehand that our village may be shelled. When we were shelled, the PKK returned fire with machine guns and Kalashnikovs,” he said. “I was breaking bread when the shelling started. I ran. My house was hit and destroyed. We salvaged what we could. One son took the sheep and ran. We followed carrying what we could, food and bedding,” said Amal Amed, 57.
The family sold off sheep and scraped by with donations from friends who raised 1,000 dollars, which they said they had used to pay for an operation on 18-year-old shepherd Rafur Sura, hit by falling rock during the shelling. Local PKK commander Mizen Amed said the guerrilla group had declared territory under its control out of bounds to visitors.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner yesterday reiterated his country’s readiness to help stabilize Iraq, during a flurry of talks with leaders of the country’s bitterly divided communities. “France is ready to play a role in the fight against the violence,” Kouchner said at a press conference after talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad.
Kouchner arrived in Iraq on Sunday for a three-day visit, the first by a French official to the war ravaged country since the US-led invasion of March 2003, which Paris vehemently opposed. Describing as “unacceptable” the bitter sectarian violence, which has claimed thousands of lives in the past 18 months, he added: “We want to be at the side of this large and important country at the birth of its democracy.”
While not elaborating on the role he expected France to play, he indicated this may evolve through support of UN efforts in Iraq. “One part of the fight against violence and the restoration of peace and democracy in the country lies with the United Nations. France approves this path and we will assist in this direction,” he said. Kouchner, however, cautioned he had no “miracle solution” to Iraq’s problems.
In another development, Maliki held talks in Damascus yesterday aimed at persuading Syria to drop what Baghdad sees as its support for insurgents in Iraq. Maliki is the first Iraqi prime minister to visit Damascus since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam and ushered in instability that helped drive more than one million Iraqi refugees to neighboring Syria.
“There is no doubt of security figuring highly in these talks. But we will be also discussing economic underpinnings for our ties,” said government spokesman Ali Dabbagh.
Maliki, who spent years in exile in Syria as a member of the Iraqi opposition to Saddam, met Syrian Prime Minister Naji Otari and was due to meet President Bashar Assad today.
An Iraqi official, who declined to be named, said Maliki would urge Bashar to take measures to stop an alleged flow of fighters and weapons across the border. Syria agreed during the meeting to participate in an intelligence network to help the US-backed Iraqi government counter the rebels and stop cross-border movement of fighters and arms.
