URGENT: Iranian Army stops attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan’s borders

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The Commander of northern Iraq Kurdistan Region’s Border Guards has announced on Saturday that the shelling and clashes close to the Region’s borders with Iran have stopped over the past few days, following the withdrawal of Iranian Army detachments and the anti-Tehran “Free Life” PJAK armed men from the area.   “Some of the Iranian Army’s detachments have began to withdraw from the border areas, whilst the Region had witnessed a clear silence since last Wednesday, following the Iranian Army’s halt of its attacks in the area,” the Commander of the 43 rd Unit of Kurdistan’s Border Guards, Maj-General Hilkurd Khider told IraqiNews.com news agency.   An official of the Border Guards Command had stated for IraqiNews.com on Friday, that “information had reached his Command that the Iranian government had stopped shelling the border areas in the Region since last Thursday, in response for a direct demand by Iraq’s President, Jalal Talabani and Kurdistan President, Massoud Barzani.”   The said source gave no further details about the nature of the demand and the talks that took place between both sides.   Noteworthy is that Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s border areas had been targets for Iranian shelling over the past few weeks, under justification of chasing the PJAK fighters, thing that killed and injured several Kurdish citizens and forced hundreds of families to desert their home villages, along with causing   damage to those villages and farms.   SKH (RT)   771