Kurdish claim of clashes with Iranian forces

The US military noted that the relative calm that has been seen in Iraq's northern provinces can be attributed to aggressive coalition and Iraqi leaders who understand the area and know how to diffuse problems before they happen, a US commander in the area said yesterday.

"The presence of coalition forces, along with an increasingly competent and confident Iraqi army brigade and Iraqi police force inside Kirkuk, are keeping a lid on potential violence," Army Col. David R. Gray, commander of 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, said in Iraq.

Kirkuk province is an ethnically diverse area that has nationally significant natural resources and infrastructure, Gray said. Roughly 40 percent of Iraq's oil and 70 percent of its natural gas come from Kirkuk, he said, and there is tension among ethnic groups about control of the region. That tension is intensified by the return of Kurds who were displaced during Saddam Hussein's regime, he said.

The ethnic tensions occasionally manifest themselves in acts of intimidation, coercion of government leaders, and assassinations and kidnappings, Gray said, but coalition and Iraqi forces in the area have been successful in deterring most of the violence.

"I would credit the relative calm that most believe is in our area to aggressive commanders and soldiers on the ground -- both Iraqi and American -- who keep their finger on the pulse in the region and have developed a keen sense for the potential flashpoints," he said.

Political stability is a great concern for the Iraqi leaders and security forces in Kirkuk, Gray said. Having a national unity government seated will resolve many issues that will help the provincial and local governments work, he said.

Iraqi forces in northern Iraq have made great strides in capability and confidence, Gray said. In two provinces, Iraqi forces have assumed control of security, and in Kirkuk, an Iraqi army brigade will assume responsibility for the area outside Kirkuk City at the end of this month and will conduct independent operations, he said.

This comes amid a report by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is led by Iraq's president Jalal Talabani, that yesterday "Iranian Kurdish fighters infiltrated the border into the Iranian side and the Iranian army bombed the area and repelled them. The shelling hit Iraqi land at Sidakan," said Saadi Pira, an official in Iraq's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party.

PUK describes itself as struggling to attain the right of self-determination for the people of Kurdistan.

The PUK report citing ABC news says "There was no word on casualties in the shelling of the rebels of the Iranian Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Sidakan is about 80 km (50 miles) north of the northern Iraqi city of Arbil and about 10 km (6 miles) from the Iranian border."

The report added that "Iran's Revolutionary Guards have previously clashed with PJAK separatists in Iran's restive western borderlands. Security experts say PJAK is an Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whose separatist struggle regained momentum in southeastern Turkey after it called off a unilateral ceasefire in the summer of 2004." The report noted that "There was no word on the shelling from Iraq's Defense Ministry."