Posted on 08/05/2005 8:54:16 AM PDT by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
Iran sends in troops to crush border unrest
Michael Howard
Friday August 5, 2005
The Guardian
The Iranian government has deployed large numbers of troops in cities in the northwestern region which borders Iraq in an effort to quell three weeks of civil unrest that has left up to 20 people dead and more than 300 wounded, according to reports from dissident groups.
They said as many as 100,000 state security forces, backed up by helicopter gunships, had moved into the region to crack down on pro-Kurdish demonstrations.
The claims, from Kurdish groups in Iraq, could not be independently verified, and Iranian officials remained silent about the unrest.
The state-owned news agency IRNA said the trouble was due to "hooligan and criminal elements".
News agencies have reported trouble in the northern areas over the past two weeks, though the scale of the unrest has been unclear.
The protests in the Kurdish areas came after the killing of a Kurdish activist by Iranian security forces in the city of Mahabad on July 9. Since then, anti-regime demonstrations have erupted in the mainly Kurdish towns of Sanandaj, Mahabad, Sardasht, Piranshahr, Oshnavieh, Divandareh, Baneh, Sinne, Bokan and Saqiz.
In the worst violence so far, Iranian security forces are reported to have killed at least 12 Kurdish demonstrators and injured more than 70 in a clash in the city of Saqiz on Wednesday.
Witnesses said the unrest began just before noon as hundreds of protesters attacked a paramilitary outpost with sticks and stones. Government buildings, including the governor's office, were also attacked and some were ransacked.
Protesters then gathered in the main square, chanting "Down with Khamenei", the country's supreme leader.
Witnesses said that security forces responded with live bullets, and some protesters were fired at by helicopters.
Kurdsat, an Iraqi-Kurdish satellite channel based in Sulaimaniyah, reported yesterday that police had detained as many as 1,200 people after the incident.
Further unrest was feared yesterday in Bokan and Sinne, where up to 6,000 special forces soldiers were said to have gathered. Opposition leaders appealed for calm and called for the international community to put pressure on the Iranian authorities to halt the crackdown.
In a statement, the Kurdistan Democratic party of Iran, which is based in Iraq, urged "international organisations, human-rights supporters and the international community to make efforts to stop the bloodshed of the Iranian Kurdish people by the Islamic republic regime of Iran".
"This could turn into yet another tragedy for our people," said Hussein Yazdanpanah, the general secretary of the Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan, who is in exile in the city of Irbil.
"Our people want their rights and to demonstrate and work for them peacefully. But they are being met with a brutal force."
Iranian agents provocateur were moving among the protesters, he said, "ensuring chaos and violence and thereby justifying an extreme reaction from Iranian authorities".
Iran is home to about 6 million Kurds - almost 10% of the population - who say they face discrimination and repression at the hands of the theocratic rulers in Tehran.
A UN report released last Saturday said authorities were denying basic amenities to Iran's ethnic and religious minorities and in some cases seizing land.
"Regions historically occupied by Kurds ... seem to suffer disproportionate inadequacy of services such as water and electricity and unsatisfactory reconstruction efforts," the report concluded.
But Tehran dismisses such charges and is extremely sensitive about any hint of ethnic unrest, particularly by the Kurds. Anti-government demonstrations are dealt with harshly.
Mahabad, where the activist Shwana Sayyed Qadr was killed, was the capital of the short-lived Republic of Kurdistan, established by the Kurdish leader Mustafah Barzani in 1945. It has since become a symbol for Kurdish nationalism.
- Middle East Newsline reported Iran's strategic weapons programs were expected to significantly increase the prospect of a nuclear war according to a study, conducted by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar.
- Iran Focus and SMCCDI both reported that Iranian security forces are using helicopters to fire on demonstrators.
- Iranian blogger, Windsteed, Iran Hopes reported that police say they are still investigating the assassination of Moghaddasi which took place last Tuesday in Tehran. But speculation is rampant.
- Reporters Without Borders released their Iran - 2005 annual report. It said, press freedom shrank daily during 2004 in Iran and that Iran has for years been the Middle East's biggest prison for journalists.
- SMCCDI reported that a heavy explosion rocked a militia camp located in the northwestern City of Marivan by resulting in tens of wounded among Islamic republic's security forces.
- SMCCDI reported that for the first time several Iranian militiamen were injured by an IED.
- Fred Pruitt, Rantburg responded to suggestion that the U.S. should "nuke Mecca" if the U.S. suffers a major attack.
- Iranian blogger, Sa‘id Farzaneh, Iran Scan reported on the Islamic regime‘s absolute determination to present Ganji‘s saga as no big deal.
- Roozonline reported that the head of the Basij militia said sweeping changes will be taking place in Iran.
- Dan Darling, WindOfChange.net discussed NBC's report on the capture of truckloads of IED's into Iraq from Iran. I was told that there were over thirty tons of IED's.
- Iran Focus, an MEK website, reported that a prominent women’s rights activist in Iranian Kurdistan was arrested in the Kurdish region.
- The Washington Post reported that the International Crisis Group warned that the consolidation by hard-liners marks a new challenge for the rest of the world.
- The Financial Times reported that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator said the decision to resume uranium conversion activity was irreversible.
- The Washington Times asked, can Eurocrats stop the Iranian Atomic Bomb?
- The Christian Science Monitor explored why pressing Iran over nukes is a difficult road.
- Iranmania reported that a number of journalists and media personalities held a protest gathering in Tehran and a symbolic hunger strike in support of Ganji
- Iranian.ws reported that U.S. Ambassador John Bolton urged all nations "to meet their obligations to stop the flow of terrorist financing and weapons, and particularly on Iran and Syria."
- And finally, Little Green Footballs reported on an amazing press conference in Esfhan. Photo and video.
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
I hope we're keeping a verrrrrrry close eye on that Iran/Iraq border.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
"Witnesses said the unrest began just before noon as hundreds of protesters attacked a paramilitary outpost with sticks and stones."
Sticks and Stones may break my paramilitary outpost, but names will never hurt me.
NBC has also reported the Iran government sending exploisves over the border to help the insurgents
What happened to 'we will support the people of iran against the government'?
Why arent we arming Iranian dissidents and supplying them with IED's like the Iranians are doing in Iraq. A little taste of their own medicine would be great.
my thoughts exactly!!
Dream on....you have to be terrorists before these organizations will help you.
Time for us to send explosives over the Iraq border into IRAN (and down from the sky as well) to help change the Iran regime!
Keep up the great work.....Iran will soon be at the tipping point.
Will George W. Bush become the Jimmy Carter of his generation......
or does he have a trick up his sleeve?!
PRESIDENT BUSH: "America believes in the independence and territorial integrity of Iran. America believes in the right of the Iranian people to make their own decisions and determine their own future. America believes that freedom is the birthright and deep desire of every human soul. And to the Iranian people, I say: As you stand for your own liberty, the people of America stand with you."
The Iranian people are expected to do the heavy lifting on this one... The world has tired of heavy handed coups orchestrated by superpowers that lead not to greater liberty but to extended conflict. I think president Bush was speaking about people like our friend DOCTORZIN who is American and certainly stands with the people of Iran, who stand for their own liberty.
It seems the iranian people ARE doing the heavy lifting and the government is keeping quite that it's happening, something it couldn't do if the US offered support.
Count on it!!! ....................................IMHO
And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.
President George W. Bush, SOTU, 2/2/05
Maybe we are arming the Iranian Kurds in retailation.
This word support is interesting... to even consider what it implies you should probably do a few things first. Fisrt, why are the Iranian people protesting the Iranian government and second, how are they getting the message out to the rest of the world? I thought this report from BBC was very interesting...
...Kurds are saying the unrest is a sign of frustration over the denial of minority rights in Iran. Chief among these is frustration over the denial of the right to be educated in the Kurdish language... ...When the man's dead body was returned to his family they photographed it and put the pictures on the internet to show he had been tortured. His funeral sparked unrest and clashes with the police for the next week, which then spread to other Kurdish towns...
Now how would you recomend Mr. Bush support them?
Let's hope for a free Iran ruled by a secular government!
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!
Click on the link above!"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
