The Iraqi government has decided to place its forces on the borders with both Iran and Turkey, following repeated bombardments carried out by its two neighbors that targeted Kurdish, Turkish and Iranian rebels in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. The border areas in Iraqi Kurdistan are under the control of the Peshmerga, who are the special armed forces in Kurdistan, but they are administratively linked to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards carried out rocket attacks and booby-trapped marches on facilities belonging to the Iranian Kurdish opposition, which has been stationed for decades in Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northern Iraq.
In turn, Turkey launched a military operation on Sunday against facilities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Iraq and Syria.
It seems that the Iraqi statement is addressed specifically to Iran, which earlier on Wednesday confirmed its intention to continue to confront the “threat” emanating from the Iraqi region. The border areas in Iraqi Kurdistan are under the control of the Peshmerga, who are the special armed forces in Kurdistan, but they are administratively linked to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said his country hopes “not to use Iraqi lands to threaten Iran’s security.”
