Israelis Training Kurds In Iraq

Israelis training Kurds in Iraq 23 September 2006

The Israelis are providing military training to the Kurds in northern Iraq, the BBC reported on Tuesday, showing videos of the training camps. The BBC TV Newsnight program showed footage of Israeli military experts drilling Kurdish forces in shooting techniques in the semi-autonomous region of Iraq. The TV report also stated that former Israeli special forces had been in Iraq since 2004, almost one year after the U.S.-led invasion. They were working for an Israeli security consulting company and had been training Kurdish forces to act as a security force for the new Hawler International Airport as well as providing training for what they called "special assignment". Israel provided the training, along with quad bikes, communications equipment and security fencing through security companies, according to the report. The BBC also reported that the total value of the training, and the associated equipment supplied, may have been as high as 150 million dollars. A spokesman for the Kurdish region denied the TV report, saying that allegations of collaboration with the Israelis weren't new. The Israeli government also claims that it didn't permit anyone to work in Iraq and says that it's investigating the BBC report because it's against Israeli law to export military know-how without authorization. But an Israeli who said he took part in the training said that top Kurdish officials were fully aware of their nationality. "You know, day by day it's a bit tense because you know where you are and you know who you are. And there's always a chance that you'll get revealed," he told the Newsnight program. "We were training them in all kinds of anti-terror lessons, anti-terror, security airport, training them with long rifles, pistols; telling them, teaching them tactics like shooting behind doors, behind barricades, shooting from the left, shooting from the right, shooting from windows, how to shoot first, how to identify a terrorist in a crowd," he added. The BBC's report isn't the first the issue has been raised. The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonot published an article in December 2005 which stated that former Israeli commandoes were training the Kurds in weapons, self-defense and anti-terror techniques, charges Kurdish officials denied at the time. The revelation is expected to cause huge problems for the Kurds, not only in Iraq but also in the whole region, where people consider Israel as an enemy, one correspondent says.

Tension is already high between Kurds and Iraq's Arab population, both Sunnis and Shias, and the news will reinforce fears that the Kurds are pursuing a secessionist agenda. Kurdish politicians will most likely come under pressure to explain what their semi-autonomous government has been up to. The escalation of tension would deal a serious blow to efforts for national reconciliation at a time when hundreds of Iraqis are being killed every day in sectarian violence. According to the United Nations, the number of Iraqi civilians killed in July and August hit a record high of 6,599. Iraq's neighboring countries will also be outraged by the news, especially Syria and Iran, who have common borders with Kurdish areas. Damascus and Tehran, who have long accused the Kurds of cooperating with Israel, will most likely demand an explanation from the Iraqi government. Moreover, the BBC report will prove accusations made by numerous Arab analysts who have been speaking of Israelis operating inside the autonomous region of Kurdistan since the Iraq War began. This is evidence that toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003 was only the first step in a wider American-Israeli conspiracy to secure their strategic interests and re-draw the map of the Middle East, according to Arab analysts, who believe that Syria and Iran, both facing growing pressure from the U.S., are the next target.

sources : Agencies http://tenteradajjal.blogspot.com/2008/10/israelis-training-kurds-in-iraq.html