By IANS
Baghdad : Iranian artillery Thursday shelled villages in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish rebels are believed to be operating, according to an official.
The artillery shelled seven villages in the area of Qalit Diza in Sulaymanyah province in Iraq’s Kurdish Autonomous Region, Hasan Abdallah, the head of Qalit Diza council told the Voices of Iraq news agency.
The shelling continued for over two hours and caused no casualties, the official said.
The Iranian artillery frequently shells villages in the mountains of Sulaymanyah where it says rebels from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) are based.
The PJAK is part of an alliance of Kurdish rebel groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The rebel alliance is engaged in an armed campaign in support of their demand for autonomy and rights for the Kurdish minorities in Iran and Turkey.
Kurdish rebel groups are believed to be operating from northern Iraq where Iraq’s Kurds established an autonomous government, which is part of a federal Iraq.