KURDISTAN WILL BE FREE
Clashes between US-allied Arab and Kurdish fighters in east Syria kill 3 and raise tensions
BASSEM MROUE
Mon, August 28, 2023
This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes broke out Monday between two U.S.-backed groups in eastern Syria, leaving three gunmen dead and raising tensions in the region where hundreds of American troops are deployed, opposition activists said.
The clashes raise concerns of more divisions between U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters in eastern Syria that borders Iraq and where the Islamic State group once enjoyed wide presence. U.S.-backed fighters play a major role in targeting sleeper cells of the Islamic State group that still carry out deadly attacks.
Monday’s clashes came a day after the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces detained the commander a formerly allied group and several other members of his faction after they were invited to a meeting in the northeastern city of Hassakeh on Sunday.
The SDF did not confirm the detention of Ahmad Khbeil, better known as Abu Khawla. He heads the Deir el-Zour Military Council, which was allied with the SDF in its yearslong battle against the Islamic State group in Syria. SDF officials did not immediately respond to questions by The Associated Press about the arrest.
Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that the SDF was concerned that Khbeil was opening links with the Syrian government as well as Turkey, whose troops have carried out several incursions targeting Kurdish fighters in north Syria since 2016.
Khbeil's arrest could increase tension between Kurds and Arabs because most of his supporters who were also detained belong to a powerful tribe in eastern Syria. In July, a clash between the two sides left at least one Arab fighter dead.
On Monday, several opposition activists reported clashes between the sides in villages in Deir el-Zour. The Observatory and Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who follows events in the region, said three members of the Deir el-Zour Military Council were killed. Other activists said that angry Arab tribesmen cut roads in the province in protest against the SDF.
The Observatory also reported that members of the Kurdish police force known as Asayesh stormed the offices of Baz news network, an activist collective, and detained five citizen journalists including the head of the network. The Observatory said the network is funded by Khbeil.
Baz news network said in a statement that Kurdish fighters detained its journalists, confiscated equipment and took control of its offices.
On any given day, there are at least 900 U.S. forces in eastern Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors. They partner with the SDF to work on preventing a comeback by the Islamic State group.
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Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.
BASSEM MROUE
Mon, August 28, 2023
This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes broke out Monday between two U.S.-backed groups in eastern Syria, leaving three gunmen dead and raising tensions in the region where hundreds of American troops are deployed, opposition activists said.
The clashes raise concerns of more divisions between U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters in eastern Syria that borders Iraq and where the Islamic State group once enjoyed wide presence. U.S.-backed fighters play a major role in targeting sleeper cells of the Islamic State group that still carry out deadly attacks.
Monday’s clashes came a day after the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces detained the commander a formerly allied group and several other members of his faction after they were invited to a meeting in the northeastern city of Hassakeh on Sunday.
The SDF did not confirm the detention of Ahmad Khbeil, better known as Abu Khawla. He heads the Deir el-Zour Military Council, which was allied with the SDF in its yearslong battle against the Islamic State group in Syria. SDF officials did not immediately respond to questions by The Associated Press about the arrest.
Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that the SDF was concerned that Khbeil was opening links with the Syrian government as well as Turkey, whose troops have carried out several incursions targeting Kurdish fighters in north Syria since 2016.
Khbeil's arrest could increase tension between Kurds and Arabs because most of his supporters who were also detained belong to a powerful tribe in eastern Syria. In July, a clash between the two sides left at least one Arab fighter dead.
On Monday, several opposition activists reported clashes between the sides in villages in Deir el-Zour. The Observatory and Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who follows events in the region, said three members of the Deir el-Zour Military Council were killed. Other activists said that angry Arab tribesmen cut roads in the province in protest against the SDF.
The Observatory also reported that members of the Kurdish police force known as Asayesh stormed the offices of Baz news network, an activist collective, and detained five citizen journalists including the head of the network. The Observatory said the network is funded by Khbeil.
Baz news network said in a statement that Kurdish fighters detained its journalists, confiscated equipment and took control of its offices.
On any given day, there are at least 900 U.S. forces in eastern Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors. They partner with the SDF to work on preventing a comeback by the Islamic State group.
____
Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.
Reuters
Mon, August 28, 2023
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran and Iraq have reached an agreement that "armed terrorist groups" in Iraq's Kurdistan region will be disarmed and relocated next month, Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday.
“An agreement has been struck between Iran and Iraq, in which Iraq has committed to disarm armed separatists and terrorist groups present in its territory, close their bases, and relocate them to other locations before the 19th of September,” ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at a weekly briefing.
The spokesperson did not specify where militants would be relocated. There was no immediate comment from Iraq.
Iran has long accused Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region of harbouring terrorist groups involved in attacks against the Islamic Republic, with the Revolutionary Guards repeatedly targeting their bases.
Last September, Iran's Revolutionary Guards fired missiles and drones at militant targets at Iraq's Kurdish region, killing 13 people, according to local authorities.
Iraq's foreign ministry had condemned the attacks. Iran's elite military and security force had said it would continue targeting what it called terrorists in the region.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Tehran and Baghdad reach a deal to disarm and relocate Iranian dissident groups based in north Iraq
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Updated Mon, August 28, 2023
This is a locator map for Iraq with its capital, Baghdad. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran and Iraq have reached an agreement to disarm members of Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in northern Iraq and relocate their members from their current bases, officials from the two countries said Monday.
Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said in a news briefing Monday that the Iraqi government had agreed “to disarm the armed terrorist groups stationed in Iraq’s territory by September 19, and then, evacuate and transfer them from their military bases to camps designated by the Iraqi government.”
He added that the deadline would not be extended and that while relations between the two countries are “entirely friendly and warm ... the presence of terrorists in the northern region of Iraq is an unpleasant stain on mutual ties.”
Iran has periodically launched strikes targeting members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iran, or KDPI, and other Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region near the border with Iran.
An Iraqi government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the agreement was signed between the two countries and said the central government in Baghdad is “working as quickly as possible” to relocate the groups with the approval of authorities from the Kurdish regional government in Irbil and Sulaimaniyah.
He declined to give the exact location to which the disarmed militants would be moved, but said it will be within the Iraqi Kurdish region. He said they “will have a camp to live in and will be without arms.”
Different Iranian dissident groups in Iraq are aligned with each of the two main Iraqi Kurdish parties - the Kurdistan Democractic Party, with its seat of power in Irbil, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, whose stronghold is in Suleimaniyah - and are at odds with each other as well as with Iran.
“Previously Sulaimaniyah would accuse Irbil of working with these groups, and Erbil would accuse Sulaimaniyah of working with them, but as a central government we agreed to relocate them,” the Iraqi official said. “We are trying as hard as possible for this to take place on Sept. 19.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani came to power last year via a coalition of Iranian-backed parties and is seen as close to Iran, although he has also attempted to build ties with the United States and Turkey.
A spokesman for Sudani, Hisham al-Rikabi, said in a statement that the prime minister “has spoken on more than one occasion about the government’s refusal for the Iraqi land to be ... a launching pad for targeting neighboring countries.”
In addition to disarming the militant groups and removing their bases, he said, the agreement with Iran promises that Iraq will deploy border guards to prevent the “infiltration of militants” across the border and will hand over wanted suspects to Iran “after the issuance of arrest warrants in accordance with the law.”
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Salar Salim in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.
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