The United States-led war in Iraq has hardly affected the residents of Sidikan, a small Kurdish town nestled in the mountains where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey converge, but the surrounding area has fast become the frontline of another conflict.

In recent weeks, residents say, Iranian artillery shells have been heard almost daily, raining down on the nearby hills where anti-Tehran guerrillas of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) are


based on both sides of the Iran-Iraq border. Since August, thousands of Kurdish villagers on the Iraqi side of the frontier have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the barrage.

"Iran is creating a lot of problems for the Kurdista...

The United States-led war in Iraq has hardly affected the residents of Sidikan, a small Kurdish town nestled in the mountains where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey converge, but the surrounding area has fast become the frontline of another conflict.

In recent weeks, residents say, Iranian artillery shells have been heard almost daily, raining down on the nearby hills where anti-Tehran guerrillas of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) are


based on both sides of the Iran-Iraq border. Since August, thousands of Kurdish villagers on the Iraqi side of the frontier have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the barrage.

"Iran is creating a lot of problems for the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG]," said the chief of security police in the nearby town of Soran, who only revealed his first name, Gafar. "Border areas are being shelled every day." The KRG is the governing authority of the predominantly Kurdish region of northern Iraq, or Iraqi Kurdistan.

Seeking permission from his office to enter PJAK-controlled areas of Iraqi Kurdistan, Gafar told this correspondent that an executive order had been given at the beginning of November to forbid anybody going into such areas. This was followed by an official order announced on November 19 by the KRG banning journalists from traveling to bases of the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), also in Iraqi Kurdistan, prompting strong criticism from media watchdogs such as Reporters Without Borders.