Iranian forces reportedly attack several villages in Iraq

McClatchy Newspapers:

BAGHDAD - Iranian soldiers crossed into Iraq on Thursday and attacked several small villages in the northeastern Kurdish region, local officials said.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said he couldn't confirm the attacks, but five Kurdish officials said that troops had infiltrated Iraqi territory and fired on villages.
The Iranian military regularly exchanges artillery and rocket fire with Kurdish rebels who have taken refuge across the border, but Iraqi Kurdish officials worried that Iran's willingness to cross the border raises the possibility of a broader confrontation that would draw the Iraqi government and U.S. forces into an unwanted showdown.

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Jamal Ahmed, the police chief of Benjawin, a village a little more than 200 miles north of Baghdad, said the attacks killed some residents.
''We don't know the amount of casualties as the bombing was continuous and so severe,'' Ahmed said. Gwany said the attacks also killed many cattle and left villages and farms burned to the ground.

Gen. Jabbar Yawr, a spokesman for the Kurdish militia, said Iranian troops have been lobbing artillery at Iraq from across the border since Aug. 16, though Thursday was the first time that Iranian troops crossed the border...more