Iran–Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan conflict

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Iran-PJAK conflict


caption=
partof=
place=Iran, North of Iraq
date=2004 – present
result=Ongoing
combatant1=
combatant2=Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK)
commander1=
commander2=
strength1=
strength2=
casualties1=
casualties2=
casualties3=
notes= The Iran–Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan conflict is an armed conflict between Islamic Republic of Iran and the ethnic secessionist Kurdish guerrilla group Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK). The group has been carrying out attacks in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and other Kurdish-inhabited areas, and is closely affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party operating against Turkey. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2007/05/070530_mf_clash.shtml BBCPersian.com ] ]

Like the present PKK goals in Turkey, PJAK leaders say their long-term goals are to establish an autonomous Kurdish region within the Iranian state. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091202720_pf.html Shelling Near Iranian Border Is Forcing Iraqi Kurds to Flee - washingtonpost.com ] ] It is mainly focused on replacing Iran's theocracy with a democratic and federal government, where self-rule is granted to all ethnic minorities of Iran, including Arabs, Azeris, and Kurds. [ [http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370030 Iran's Kurdish Threat: PJAK ] ]

Timeline

Members of the PKK founded the PJAK in 2004 as an Iranian equivalent to their leftist-nationalist insurgency against the Turkish government. [http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir060628_1_n.shtml]

Istanbul's Cihan News Agency claimed that over 120 members of the Iranian security forces were killed by PJAK during 2005. [http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20060410&hn=31854 Iran Arrests 7 PKK Terrorists] , April 10, 2006, Cihan News Agency/zaman.com]

PJAK killed 24 members of Iranian security forces on April 3, 2006 in retaliation for the killing of 10 Kurds demonstrating in Maku by Iranian security forces. [http://washingtontimes.com/world/20060403-125601-8453r.htm Tehran faces growing Kurdish opposition] , James Brandon, The Washington Times, April 3, 2006] On April 10th, 2006, seven PJAK members were arrested in Iran, on suspicion that they killed three Iranian security force personnel. PJAK set off a bomb on 8 May 2006 in Kermanshah, wounding five people at a government building. [ [http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir060628_1_n.shtml The militant Kurds of Iran - Jane's Security News ] ] Since those events, the US news channel MSNBC claimed that the Iranian military begun bombardments of Kurdish villages in US-occupied Iraq along the Iranian border while claiming that their primary targets were PJAK militants. A number of civilians died. [ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20759540/site/newsweek/page/2/ Trouble on the Iran-Iraq Border - Newsweek: World News - MSNBC.com ] ] On September 28, 2006, Iran said that two members of the PKK (which Iran regularly confuses with the closely affiliated PJAK) blew up a gas pipeline to Turkey near the town of Bazargan in West Azerbaijan province. [http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370269]

On February 24, 2007 an Iranian helicopter crashed near the town of Khoy, killing 13 soldiers, including several members of the elite Revolutionary Guards and Said Qahari, the head of the Iranian army's 3rd Corps. PJAK quickly claimed to have shot down the helicopter using a shoulder-launched missile, killing 20 soldiers, including several senior officers, during an hour-long battle. Iran, however, blamed the crash on bad weather. After that, Iran launched a counter-offensive against the group in the northeast of Iran's West Azerbaijan province, near the Turkish border. According to Iran's state news agencies as many as 47 Kurdish rebels and 17 Iranian soldiers were killed in the violence between February 25 and March 1 2007. [http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370269]

In August 2007, PJAK claimed it managed to down an Iranian military helicopter that was conducting a forward operation of bombardment by Iranian forces. [ [http://www.ozgurgundem.net/haber.asp?haberid=41878 PJAK helikopter düşürdü ] ]

The Iranian news agency IRNA reported on October 11, 2008 that members of the Iranian religious militia Basij killed four Kurdish guerrillas in a clash close to the Iraqi border. [http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/10098371.asp?scr=1]

Relation to United States government and military structures

On April 18, 2006, US Congressman Dennis Kucinich sent a letter to US president George W. Bush in which he expressed his judgment that the US is likely to be supporting and coordinating PJAK, since PJAK operates and is based in Iraqi territory, which is under the control of the U.S. supported Kurdistan Regional Government. [http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=42505 Kucinich Questions The President On US Trained Insurgents In Iran: Sends Letter To President Bush] , Dennis Kucinich, April 18, 2006]

In November 2006, journalist Seymour Hersh writing in "The New Yorker", supported this claim, stating that the US military and the Israelis are giving the group equipment, training, and targeting information in order to create internal pressures in Iran.cite news|first=Seymour M.|last=Hersh|pages=|title=The Next Act|date=November 20, 2006|publisher=The New Yorker|url=http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061127fa_fact|accessdate=2006-11-19]

This is denied officially by both the US and PJAK. In an interview with Slate magazine in June 2006, when PJAK spokesman Ihsan Warya was paraphrased as stating that he "nevertheless points out that PJAK really does wish it were an agent of the United States, and that [PJAK is] disappointed that Washington hasn't made contact." The Slate article continues stating that the PJAK wishes to be supported by and work with the United States in overthrowing the government of Iran in a similar way to the US eventually cooperated with Kurdish organisations in Iraq in overthrowing the government of Iraq during the most recent Iraq war.cite news|first=Graeme|last=Wood|pages=|title=Iran Bombs Iraq: Meet the Kurdish guerrillas who want to topple the Tehran regime|date=June 12, 2006|publisher=Microsoft|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2143492/?nav=fo|accessdate=2006-12-02]

In August 2007, the leader of PJAK visited Washington, DC in order to seek more open support from the US both politically and militarily [ [http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070804/FOREIGN/108040031/1003 Kurdish leader seeks U.S. help to topple regime - - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper ] ] but it was later said that he only made limited contacts with officials in Washington. [ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20759540/site/newsweek/page/2/ Trouble on the Iran-Iraq Border - Newsweek: World News - MSNBC.com ] ] One of the top officials in the PKK made a statement in late 2006, that "If the US is interested in PJAK, then it has to be interested in the PKK as well" referring to the alliance between the two groups and their memberships in the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (KCK). [ [http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=77119 The Daily Star - Politics - PKK commander says Washington 'has contact' with Kurdish rebels fighting Iran ] ]

ee also

* Kurdistan Workers Party
* Turkey-PKK conflict
* Kurdish people
* Iranian Kurdistan

External links

* [http://pjak.org PJAK website] (in Persian, Sorani and English)
* [http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir060628_1_n.shtml Extract from article about Kurdish Iranian militants] 28 June 2006

References