Iran shells Iraqi Kurdistan area

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq — Artillery shells fired from Iran have landed in remote northern villages of Iraqi Kurdistan in the past four days and have killed at least two civilians and wounded four others, a senior Kurdish official said Saturday.

Dozens of families have fled the region.

The shells have been aimed at an area around Qandil Mountain, known as a base for militant Kurdish opposition groups seeking independence from Turkey and Iran, said the official, Mustafa Sayed Qadir, a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which governs the eastern half of Iraqi Kurdistan.

"A lot of homes have been damaged and livestock killed," he said. A shepherd was wounded Saturday, and two women were among the three people wounded on previous days, he added.

Also, Saturday, state-run television reported that Iran has launched a series of large-scale military exercises aimed at introducing the country's new defensive doctrine. The television report said the military exercise would occur in 14 of the country's 30 provinces and could last as long as five weeks.

The first stage of the maneuvers began with air strikes in the southeastern province of Sistan va Baluchistan, the report said.

The government of Iraq is aware of the shelling in its northern villages, which has taken place occasionally in recent months, but has not taken an official position, he said.

The president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, is the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. He has at times had a close relationship with Iran, especially when he sought Iranian support in the 1990s against rival Kurdish leaders and Saddam Hussein. But Talabani is also aware of the Iranian government's poor treatment of its Kurdish minority. Iranian officials could not be reached to comment Saturday evening.

Iran and Turkey have sizeable Kurdish populations that live in mountainous areas bordering Iraqi Kurdistan. In recent weeks, the two countries have stepped up warnings to Kurdish militant groups, perhaps fearing that they might have enough of a safe haven in Iraqi Kurdistan to inject new vigor into independence movements in Iran and Turkey. Iraqi Kurdistan is autonomous from the rest of Iraq and is home to most of this country's 5 million Kurds.

It is unclear what weaponry or troops Iran has amassed along its border with Iraqi Kurdistan.

U.S. officials have accused Iran of supporting Hezbollah in its recent battle against Israel. Earlier this month, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Iran had been pushing small Shiite militias to step up attacks against the U.S.-led forces in Iraq as retaliation for Israel's assault on Lebanon.