From The Independent UK
By Patrick Cockburn

Shell craters and dead branches torn off the trees by explosions mark the places in the mountains of northern Iraq targeted by Iranian artillery firing across the border in a serious escalation of the confrontation between Iran and the US.

Frightened villagers, whose farms cling to the sides of the deep valleys below Kandil mountain, ran for their lives as Iran opened fire on Iraqi territory for the first time since the US invasion in 2003. Local officials said about 2,000 shells were fired in four hours.

“I was woken up by the sound of the shelling in the middle of the night and I saw there was fire everywhere,” said Meri Hamza Farqa, an elderly Kurdish woman from Shinawa village. “The children and I ran out of the house and scattered in different directions. A shell blew up near me and I was hit by mud and stones. Later I saw blood coming from my arm.”

The old saying of the Kurds that they “have no friends but the mountains” is truest here among the towering peaks along on the frontier with Iran. For the first time in their tragic history the Kurds believe they are close to being recognised as a nation within Iraq but they fear that their powerful neighbours – Iran, Syria and Turkey – will snatch away their victory at the last moment.

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