Posted on 08/12/2013 3:17:34 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Iraqi Kurdistan is ready to defend Kurds living in Syria if it is found that they are being threatened by al Qaeda-linked fighters involved in the Syrian civil war, the president of the well-armed autonomous region said.
In a letter posted online on Saturday, Masoud Barzani said he had directed Kurdish representatives to go to neighboring Syria to investigate news reports that the "terrorists of al Qaeda are attacking the civilian population and slaughtering innocent Kurdish women and children."
His statement was a further sign of how Syria's two-year conflict is spilling over its borders and aggravating sectarian tensions in adjacent countries.
Exploiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's receding territorial grip on the country, Syrian Kurds have carved out de facto autonomy in the far northeast where their population is concentrated. But they have also clashed with Sunni Muslim jihadi fighters spearheading the insurgency against Assad.
"If the reports are true, showing that citizens, women and the children of innocent Kurds are under threat from murder and terrorism, Iraq's Kurdistan region will make use of all of its capabilities to defend women and children and innocent citizens," Barzani's statement said. He did not elaborate on the nature or extent of possible intervention from Kurdistan.
Barzani's letter was sent on Thursday to the preparatory committee for a Kurdish National Conference to be held in the northern Kurdistan city of Arbil later this month. The panel includes envoys from Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. Barzani asked this committee to form another panel that would go into Syria.
Posted on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) website, Barzani's statement referred to areas in Syria as "Western Kurdistan." Spread over large, adjoining tracts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, the Kurdish people are often described as the largest ethnic group without their own state.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
So this is possibly curds n whey to Syria.
The Kurds are honorable people. I have some friends that worked with them back in the day and they always had positive things to say about them.
The Kurds give me hope for muslims.
They are great people.
Very tolerant of others, will give you the shirt off their back and are honorable.
They are actually muslims you can trust.
You could build a church next them and marry their daughter. They would be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas.
But if you f*ck with them - they are going to come after you hard. And they defend their own.
These people have a long history of Not Being Screwed With successfully. That is why they are “autonomous”...
I hope all the armament and ammo we left behind went to them - but that is unlikely.
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