Pentagon: Iran-backed militias, PKK coordinated vs. Turkish troops in Iraq
Turkey’s targeting of veteran PKK cadres in Iraq has pushed the Kurdish guerrillas to collaborate with an unlikely partner, a new Pentagon report suggests.
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon believes Iran-backed militias have been coordinating with left-wing Kurdish guerrillas to launch attacks on Turkey’s military presence in northern Iraq, according to declassified US military intelligence included in an inspector general report released today.
Prominent Iran-backed militias have publicly slammed Turkey’s military operations targeting fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from the mountains of northern Iraq, citing violations of Iraq's sovereignty.
The militias are also behind a small but increasing number of rocket attacks on Turkish forces in both Iraq and Syria in recent months, according to the declassified report. Some of the strikes in Iraq were carried out “in cooperation with the PKK,” the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reported.
“Following Turkish airstrikes in February that targeted the PKK in northern Iraq, a new Iran-aligned militia group conducted a rocket attack against a Turkish expeditionary base north of Mosul,” the report read. The Turkish outpost near Zlikan, northeast of Mosul, has repeatedly come under rocket fire in the past year.
