On Wednesday evening, the Security Council of the Iraqi government decided to take a set of measures to strengthen border protection of the republic amid strikes by the Armed Forces of Turkey and Iran on targets in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Iraq Yahya Rasool said.
"The National Security Council held a meeting on Wednesday evening chaired by Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces Mohammed al-Sudani attended by council members and the chief of staff of the peshmerga (Kurdish paramilitary forces - TASS). [Council members] discussed the attacks by Turkey and Iran, the violations of Iraq's borders and the strikes that have affected several parts of Iraqi Kurdistan, causing panic among the population and harming them and their property," Rasool was quoted by Iraq's INA news agency as saying.
According to him, in order to stop these hostile actions, the council, along with diplomatic steps, decided to develop a plan to redeploy border troops to "hold the zero line" along the borders with Iran and Turkey, provide the command of these troops with the necessary logistical support, strengthen the combat capabilities of personnel, provide funding and equipment. In addition, the authorities will reallocate the human resources of the republic's interior ministry to strengthen the border posts, as well as to coordinate with the government of Kurdish autonomy and the peshmerga paramilitary units.
On the night of November 20, Turkey carried out an air operation in northern Iraq and Syria, using more than 50 airplanes and 20 drones. The attacks were carried out on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its Syrian branch (People's Self-Defense Forces). The Turkish authorities blamed the PKK and the Syrian Kurds for the November 13 attack in Istanbul, which killed six people.
On September 24, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, the elite army units of Iran) launched air strikes against the Kurdish formations based in Iraq. As IRNA agency pointed out, the purpose of the operation was the attempts of these forces to destabilize the situation in the Islamic Republic. On October 8, the command of IRGC's ground forces warned that they would restart strikes against the separatists' bases in case of their new attacks. On November 14, Iran resumed shelling Iraqi Kurdistan.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: MohammadHuzam/Creative Commons 4.0
Based on materials from TASS