Iran Launches Airstrikes Into Iraq

The Weekly Standard Blog ^ | May 4, 2009 | Weekly Standard

[SeattleBruce]

Or watch for the stock market to drop 1,000 points quickly in the next week?? </sarc>

What are plays c, d, e, and f in the community (communist) organizers playbook?

[SeattleBruce]

http://televisionwashington.com/floater_article1.aspx?lang=en&t=2&id=10211

“Iran carried out air raids targeting alleged separatists in the autonomous Kurdistan region on Saturday. According to Iraq’s Foreign Ministry, villagers were wounded in the attacks.”

Yes, this has been happening for a while. Looks like a border skirmish - but an important test for Iraq and the US nonethless. Obammy’s not ready for a non TOTUS test of any kind - even a skirmish like this. Just look what’s going on with the ‘civilian deaths’ in Afghanistan. The Taliban are playing Obammy like a fiddle.

WARNING! WARNING! Katie Couric alert (she’s embedded with the generals!? Gasp! Where’s Sarah Palin when she needs a target you can believe in?:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/06/eveningnews/main4996884.shtml

[do the dhue]

A wimpy President will entice bad behavior from the Iranians every time.

I would think that it would be in Iraq's interest to bomb Iran's nuclear facility now.

[DrewsMum]

if you get tired of me asking just stop me...LOL..

I guess what I am trying to say is did the kurds (in Iraq) start the attacking?

I do understand what you are saying and I know they are doing it now b/c of Obama...what I am saying is....could their position be justified by the Kurds attacking?

[penelopesire]

Thanks for the links. Couric sounds as if she is trying to make excuses for Obama..but can’t quite pull it off because of her innate liberal mistrust of the military. Must be awful to be her....LOL!! The MSM always believed those ‘wedding bombing stories’ etc. Now they find themselves not wanting to believe them just because Obama is prez. It’s like a misfire of the brain...lol

God Bless Our Military!

[SeattleBruce]

“Must be awful to be her....LOL!! The MSM always believed those ‘wedding bombing stories’ etc. Now they find themselves not wanting to believe them just because Obama is prez. It’s like a misfire of the brain...lol”

Good points. I’ve noticed this too. With things not going perfectly in dear leaders one pet war (I’m saying this to prove a point, not that I don’t support our troops - which I adamently do) - dear leaders ego is bruised.

Whaddawegunnado when Obammy’s on-the-job training isn’t going well??

You’re right - it must be a crushing blow to Couric and the other cultists.

[widdle_wabbit]

Good Luck David. I believe in you and I believe in the mission.

[Tommyjo]

Iran has been attacking Kurdish targets in Iraq for decades. They didn’t stop even when President Bush was in power! Iran attacked the Kurdish positions during 2006, 2007 and 2008. The Turks have been doing the same.

[Tommyjo]

It isn’t new! Iran has been striking Kurdish positions in Iraq for decades. Even when President Bush was in office!

2008

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/turkey/8524072.asp?gid=231&sz=59500

Iran shells Kurdish militants bases in N.Iraq: Kurdish official

Iranian artillery shelled on Sunday three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish militants are believed to be operating, an Iraqi Kurdish official said.

The shelling on the towns of Marado, Razda and Dolakoka started at 7:00 a.m. and lasted for about two hours, said Azad Watho, a top administrative official in Sulaimaniyah city. Watho, who is administratively in charge of these towns, said the shelling had targeted the fighters of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK, but had no more details.

Sulaimaniyah, one of three provinces that make up Iraq’s semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, is located about 260 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Tehran had no immediate comment on the report and officials could not be reached because of the official Nowruz, or New Year, holiday in the Persian nation. The Iranian army frequently shells villages in the mountains of northern Iraq where it alleges that members from PEJAK, a breakaway faction of the outlawed separatist PKK, are based.

In a similar shelling by Iran last September, a former chief of the elite Revolutionary Guard, said Tehran considers shelling the guerrilla its right in order to protect its security. Iran repeatedly has said the PEJAK regularly launch attacks inside Iran from bases in Iraq in the Qandil Mountain area that borders Iran and Turkey.

Last August, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari strongly criticized Iranian artillery and warned that it would negatively effect the relations between the two neighboring countries. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the collapse of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Iraqi government has had good relations with Iran.

The two countries experienced an eight year war, launched by Iraq in 1980 that left 1 million killed on both sides.

http://www.aina.org/news/20070523160405.htm

Iran Shells Kurdish Guerrilla Haven in Northern Iraq

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Posted GMT 5-23-2007 21:4:5

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SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AFP) — Iranian forces bombarded northern Iraq’s rugged Qandil mountains with mortars Wednesday, targeting Kurdish guerrillas, a local official said.

The barrage lasted much of the day and targeted several villages, said Hussein Ahmed, the mayor of Bashdar, one of the targeted villages.

“I expect there will be both human and material losses, but I do not know right now the extent of the damage,” he told reporters.

The snow-capped Qandil mountains run along Iraq’s border with both Turkey and Iran, and are home to separatist guerrillas from the anti-Iranian faction Pejak, an offshoot of Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which opposes Turkey.

The movements have fought for decades for the autonomy of the Kurdish people, though recently they claim to have abandoned violence in favor of a peaceful solution.

Turkey has threatened to invade the northern Iraqi PKK haven if their activities are not reigned in by the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, while Iran frequently shells the area.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961254911&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

2006

On Sunday, Iranian artillery fired more than 180 shells into the same area of northern Iraq, also targeting Kurdish rebel bases but causing no casualties, the Iraqi government said. Those shells landed near the Iraqi village of Haj Omran, which is about 3 miles inside the Iraq-Iran border, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense said.

[drpix]

"...could their position be justified by the Kurds attacking?"

The way I see it, the Iranian air strikes on the Kurds in Iraq is ONLY justified if the Iranians would consider (or would have considered) US air strikes against terrorists who have fled into Iran & Syria justified.

Since the Iranians would not, their attack has nothing to do with them feeling justified, but everything to do with them feeling like they can get away with it - without the US launching similar attacks.