The president of Iraqi Kurdistan vowed Saturday to defend the large Kurdish population in neighboring Syria from al-Qaida-linked rebel fighters, highlighting the potential for Syria’s civil war to morph into a full-blown regional, ethnic and sectarian conflict.
The president of Iraqi Kurdistan vowed Saturday to defend the large Kurdish population in neighboring Syria from al-Qaida-linked rebel fighters, highlighting the potential for Syria’s civil war to morph into a full-blown regional, ethnic and sectarian conflict.
The comments from Massoud Barzani follow weeks of clashes in predominantly Kurdish parts of northeastern Syria between Kurdish militias and Islamic extremist rebel factions that have killed dozens on both sides. The fighting in the oil-rich region near the Iraqi border has emerged as yet another layer in Syria’s increasingly complex and bloody civil war.
In a statement, Barzani called for a delegation to visit Kurdish areas in Syria to verify the reports that “al-Qaida terrorists” are killing Kurds. If confirmed, then Iraqi Kurdistan “will make use of all its capabilities to defend the Kurdish women, children and citizens in western Kurdistan,” he said.
Barzani offered no other details about how he would protect Syria’s Kurds. Iraqi Kurdistan boasts a powerful armed force known as the peshmerga, which includes experienced and equipped fighters hardened by years of guerrilla warfare.
But Barzani seems unlikely to risk a direct military intervention. Such a move would likely trigger a furious reaction from Iraq’s central government as well as neighboring Turkey, which has been wrestling with its own Kurdish insurgency for decades.
Some 25 million Kurds live in an arc of land that covers parts of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq, and they have long demanded an independent homeland.