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President
of Iraqi Kurdistan ready to defend Kurds in Syria
Masoud
Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, has said that
he will use “all capabilities” to defend Kurdish civilians who
are under threat by Al-Qaeda-linked fighters involved in the Syrian
civil war.
RT,
10
August, 2013
The
statement comes days after reports of a possible massacre in Syria.
Barzani
said that he wants a committee to be formed to look into reports of
violence, and has hinted that the autonomous region of northern Iraq,
which has a well-equipped army, would intervene militarily to defend
Syrian Kurds.
In
a letter which he posted online Saturday on the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) website, he said that he told Kurdish
representatives to go to Syria and investigate reports that
“terrorists of Al-Qaeda are attacking the civilian population and
slaughtering innocent Kurdish women and children.”
“If
the reports are true, showing that citizens, women and children of
innocent Kurds are under threat from murder and terrorism, Iraq’s
Kurdistan region will make use of all its capabilities to defend
women and children and innocent civilians,” the letter continued.
As
well as being posted online Saturday, the letter was sent on Thursday
to the preparatory committee for a Kurdish National Conference to be
held later this month in Arbil – located in the far north of Iraqi
Kurdistan.
The
statement referred to the area of Syria where Kurds live as ‘Western
Kurdistan.’ The Kurdish people are spread over adjoining parts of
Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, and are the largest ethnic group in the
world without their own state.
Iraqi
Kurds have already sent food, medical supplies, and fuel to their
Kurdish brethren in Syria but Barzani’s statement is the first time
that intervention has been suggested.
There
were unconfirmed reports of a massacre earlier this week, in which
450 Kurds were allegedly murdered by Al-Qaeda-linked rebels.
According to IranianTV channel Al-Alam, militants from the Jabat
Al-Nusra Front attacked the town of Tal Abyad near the Turkish border
on Monday, killing 120 children and 330 women. Neither the Syrian
government nor the Syrian opposition has confirmed the report.
However,
RT managed to get in contact with Kurdish sources who said that
increased fighting had taken place in the area.
“The
Al-Nusra militants and other rebel forces surrounded the village.
They started going door to door, entering every house. If there were
any men they killed them and took the women and children hostage,”
said the source.
These
latest reports follow a statement last month from the Russian Foreign
Ministry that Al-Qaeda-linked extremists were holding 200 Kurdish
civilians as hostages. The militants were apparently taking revenge
for the capture by the Kurds of rebel leader Abu Musab. Five hundred
civilians were initially abducted but some were released in agreement
with the Kurds, who also released Musab. Around 200 people are
believed to still be the hands of the Jihadists.
“In
these areas, there has long been confrontation between the troops of
the international extremists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and local
Kurdish militias who stood up to protect their homes from attacks by
radical Islamists,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a July
statement.
The
Kurds are the main obstacle to the Islamists declaring a de facto
state of their own in the northeast of Syria – an area which Syrian
President Bashar Assad has little control over.
Barzani’s
comments are further proof of how Syria’s two-year conflict is
spilling over into neighboring countries.
The
northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan - which already has its own
government and armed forces - has also begun to pursue independent
energy and foreign policies, which has infuriated the Shi’ite
government of Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad. Northern Iraq is the only
area of the country which has seen peace and a semblance of stability
since American troops left in 2011.
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