Iran shells Kurdish rebel positions

Arbil: Iranian forces shelled Iranian Kurdish rebel positions inside mountainous northern Iraq yesterday to repel an attack, an Iraqi Kurdish official said.

"This morning Iranian Kurdish fighters infiltrated the border into the Iranian side and the Iranian army bombed the area and repelled them. The shelling hit Iraqi land at Sidakan," said Saadi Pira, an official in Iraq's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party.

There was no official word on casualties in the shelling of the rebels of the Iranian Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Sidakan is 80km north of the Iraqi city of Arbil and 10km from the Iranian border.

The pro-PKK Firat website said six Iranian soldiers and five Kurdish guerrillas had been killed in the clashes. It was not possible to independently confirm that report.

News of the incident could fuel tensions in Iraq, where Sunni leaders accuse Iran of meddling in the country's internal affairs.