Why isn't mainstream media all over this?
Is it "normal" for northern Iraq (where Kurdish-Israeli supported lands are) to be shelled by Iran while with US remains silent? These are strange events... One doesn't know what to believe..
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=121077
Iran declines to deny reports of shelling in northern Iraq
Iran declined yesterday to deny or confirm reports that it has been shelling Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, saying it would investigate the issue.
"We have to investigate more into the truth of these reports," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in the first official Iranian comment on the shelling. "What we are witnessing in our border area with Iraq is the activity of some terrorist groups who are using the presence of occupiers in this region to perpetrate acts of sabotage," he added, during a weekly news conference in Tehran.
Iraqi officials last month accused Iran of shelling Kurdish villages in Iraq's northeast since mid-August. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday the shelling threatened ties with Iran and also that Baghdad had summoned Iran's envoy over the incidents. "They (terrorist groups) cross the borders illegally. They have transferred a lot of weapons from Iraq into Iran and have caused some clashes," Hosseini said.
Cross-border fighting occasionally occurs as Iraq's neighbors, Turkey and Iran, combat the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the anti-Iranian Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), which is linked to the PKK, who operate from bases in Iraq's mountainous and remote north and northeastern regions. Baghdad says hundreds of people were evacuated from villages due to the shelling.
Turkey has threatened to launch a cross-border operation to hit PKK bases in northern Iraq, but observers say such a measure would be on hold for the next several weeks, after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to sign a counter-terrorism deal with Turkey during a visit to Ankara earlier this week.
Reports said Iranian shelling of border areas resumed Saturday after a brief lull, with Iranian shells hitting the Iraqi side of the border and causing some fires. Associated Press Television News showed white smoke billowing from mountainous areas as well as Kurdish shepherds carrying the carcasses of several sheep killed by the shelling.
Ari Yashir, a PJAK member, took a reporter on a tour around several deserted villages and claimed the Iranian attacks only serve to harm civilians. "The bombing is only targeting villages where we have no bases," he was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. "After three weeks of Iranian shelling, none of our positions was hit and not a single member of our party was wounded."
Most of the people who fled their homes have gathered in an area known as Shewe Hasow, a valley with water springs in the Kandil Mountains area that borders Iran and Turkey. Many of them stay in tents or under covers mostly supplied by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"We are here because the refugees are in need," said ICRC member Patrick Youssef, standing by a truck with canned food and bottled water. "We are helping them with needed stuff because most of them left their homes, leaving their things behind."
The Kurdish region's interior minister, Othman Haji Mahmoud, told the Kurdish regional parliament Tuesday that the Iranian shelling led to the displacement of some 450 families in 20 villages, adding that several people were wounded in addition to material damages. He said the latest wave of shelling began Aug. 14. Zebari, a Kurd, said in Baghdad Tuesday that the main areas struck were in the northern provinces of Arbil and Sulaimaniyah. Iranian shelling "has been ongoing and unfortunately has become a daily or a routine practice."
"PJAK sometimes moves in the border area, but this does not permit all this continuous, daily and intensive shelling," he said.
"It was a bad day when some 20 shells hit our village in a single day last week. We were crying as we prayed to God to protect us from the bombs of Iran," said the 33-year-old Serwa Ibrahim, one of the few remaining villagers in Mardow, about 40 kilometers from the Iranian border, on Thursday.
03.09.2007
Today's Zaman with wires ?stanbul
==============
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g6eoOaW6jT7tTxObv2lu2OmJ_TfQ
Hundreds Displaced in Northern Iraq
By YAHYA BARZANJI – 5 days ago
MARDOW, Iraq (AP) — As explosions boomed in the distance, a Kurdish woman stood outside her house and pointed to where shells scorched parts of her father's grapes and plum orchards.
"It was a bad day when some 20 shells hit our village in a single day last week. We were crying as we prayed to God to protect us from the bombs of the Islamic Republic of Iran," said Serwa Ibrahim, one of the few remaining villagers in Mardow, about 25 miles from the Iranian border.
"Despite the shelling, I will stay in my village until the end," Ibrahim, 33, said Thursday.
Iranian troops have been accused of bombing border areas for weeks against suspected positions of the Free Life Party, or PEJAK, a breakaway faction of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party. Iran says PEJAK — which seeks autonomy for Kurds in Iran — launches attacks inside Iran from bases in Iraq.
Shelling of border areas resumed Saturday after a brief lull, with Iranian shells hitting the Iraqi side of the border and causing some fires. AP Television News showed white smoke billowing from mountainous areas, and Kurdish shepherds carrying carcasses of sheep killed by the shelling.
The Iranian shelling has been criticized by Iraqi officials and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned it could have negative effects on the crucial relations between Iran and Iraq's Shiite-led government.
Ari Yashir, a PEJAK member, took a reporter in a tour around several deserted villages and claimed the Iranian attacks only serve to harm civilians.
"The bombing is only targeting villages where we have no bases," he said. "After three weeks of Iranian shelling none of our positions was hit and not a single member of our party was wounded."
Most of the people who fled their homes have gathered in an area known as Shewe Hasow, a valley with water springs in the Qandil Mountain area that borders Iran and Turkey. Many of them stay in tents or under covers mostly supplied by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"We are here because the refugees are in need," said ICRC member Patrick Youssef, standing by a truck with canned food and bottled water. "We are helping them with needed stuff because most of them left their homes leaving their things behind."
The Kurdish region's interior minister, Othman Haji Mahmoud, told the Kurdish regional parliament Tuesday that the Iranian shelling led to the displacement of some 450 families in 20 villages, adding that several people were wounded in addition to material damages.
He said the latest wave of shelling began Aug. 14.
In Baghdad, Zebari said Tuesday that the main areas struck are in the northern provinces of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah. Iranian shelling "has been ongoing and unfortunately has become a daily or a routine practice. Recently, we summoned the Iranian ambassador and handed him a note of protest."
"PEJAK sometimes moves in border area, but this does not permit all this continuous, daily and intensive shelling," said Zebari, a Kurd, who noted that Iraq was prepared to hold negotiations with Iran on the disputes over Kurdish rebel groups.
"We hope that these attacks will stop immediately."
To some Kurds in the region, they have been living the war for decades, including widespread atrocities blamed on Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s.
"We are the victims of a continuous struggle. My house was destroyed five times and I rebuilt it. Let this be the sixth time," said Abdullah Wasou Ibrahim, who fled to the refugee camp with 10 family members.
My guess is that if US mainstream media were to focus on it, then the US masses would eventually discover that US and Israeli entities have been funding and training such militant groups (read: US-designated terrorist organizations) all these years.
Those militant groups are responsible for terror attacks and kidnappings within Iran and Iraq. Jundallah alone is responsible for several bombings and kidnappings against Iranian civilians and Revolutionary Guardsmen within Iran.
Notice that the words MeK, PKK, Jundallah, et al., have been omitted from daily mainstream coverage of the Middle East all these years; it's because neocons and their fellow war-whores in the US government have been funding, training, and harboring those organizations all this time. And whether the violence is being done by them, or against them, it's bad press for the neozionazis, AIPAC, et al.
Notice, also, that the AIPAC espionage trial has been postponed 50 million times, but not one word of the trial itself ever comes up in the mainstream; it's because the traitorous war criminals in government, media, and Wall Street must "cover their rears, and those of their peers."
At least that's my layman hypothesis.
AIPAC = Apartheid Israel Putting America in the Crosshairs
Deatin_this.. Indeed, "they" pick and chose what they think should be said... and what shouldn't... and that is the way minds are manipulated. In the US, Americans often don't really know what their army is fighting for, because they simply never get the truth. Look at what is happening in Lebanon lately. The US is playing a very nastly role. The US ambassador speaks everyday..., takes very important and dangerous action everyday... and NOT A WORD of this is even mentioned in US media. The US ambassador dines and wines in Lebanon with an assassin... literally a convicted assassin and an Israeli agent that the US released from 5 life sentences in jail... and the US has been trying unsuccessfully to provoke through him during the past few months a civil war in Lebanon..., yet none of this is even reported in US news.
"They" do pick and chose what Americans should and shouldn't know.
..doesn't surprise me, Cherifa!
..when almost the entire US gov't is run by traitors, whose only allegiances are to israel, zionism, money and power..
..so many bastards have blood on their hands; a total waste..