A senior Iraqi Kurdish military commander has rejected claims that his forces are helping Iranian Kurdish fighters cross the border into Iran, even as he condemned what he called daily Iranian attacks on Peshmerga bases.
Sirwan Barzani, a Peshmerga major-general, told Middle East Eye that since hostilities between the United States, Israel and Iran began on 28 February, the Kurdistan region of Iraq has endured approximately 430 drone and missile strikes.
Speaking on Tuesday the same day Iranian ballistic missiles killed six Peshmerga soldiers and wounded 30 others General Barzani described the strike as a terrorist attack and expressed deep frustration at what he characterised as unprovoked aggression.
“What’s the reason why they attack the Peshmerga bases every day? We did not do anything against them,” he said. “We are neighbours. We have trade relations. We have historical relations.”
Despite his anger, the general moved to firmly distance his forces from western media reports suggesting Iraqi Kurdish fighters were facilitating the movement of Iranian Kurds across the border to fight against Tehran.
“We have not made such a decision. This is not our job,” he said. “We are in the Iraqi part to defend this part of Kurdistan. This is our duty.”
General Barzani, a cousin of Iraqi Kurdistan’s president Nechirvan Barzani, added that Iranian intelligence was itself aware the reports were unfounded, noting that Iran maintains a consulate in Erbil.
The commander, who earned the nickname “Black Tiger” during fighting against Saddam Hussein’s forces in the 1990s, holds responsibility for defending the Kurdish frontline against the Islamic State militant group in northern Iraq.
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