A string of articles have appeared in the US press over the past week reporting on the Iranian shelling of border areas inside the Kurdish north of Iraq since August. One American journalist after another has trekked to the Qandil mountains to interview guerrillas belonging to the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and describe first hand the resulting devastation to crops, livestock and impoverished villages.
The sudden interest in this remote, mountainous region has nothing to do with concern for the plight of local Kurds. It is another element of the anti-Iranian propaganda campaign being cranked up by the Bush administration and media. Iranian “meddling†in Iraq’s north is being added to Tehran’s alleged nuclear weapons programs and support for anti-US insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. All of the articles deliberately obscure Washington’s responsibility in fuelling the conflict and turning northern Iraq into a potential regional battleground.
The sudden interest in this remote, mountainous region has nothing to do with concern for the plight of local Kurds. It is another element of the anti-Iranian propaganda campaign being cranked up by the Bush administration and media. Iranian “meddling†in Iraq’s north is being added to Tehran’s alleged nuclear weapons programs and support for anti-US insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. All of the articles deliberately obscure Washington’s responsibility in fuelling the conflict and turning northern Iraq into a potential regional battleground.
