Barzani says ready to strike militants in Syria

[Shirko]

Barzani says ready to strike militants in Syria
Iraqi Kurdistan is prepared to strike militants anywhere, including in neighboring Syria, but must avoid being drawn into its civil war, the autonomous region's president Massoud Barzani told AFP.
Barzani's remarks came after militants carried out a late-September attack on a security service headquarters in the Kurdish region's capital Erbil, killing seven people, a rare occurrence in an area usually spared the violence plaguing other parts of Iraq.
"We will not hesitate in directing strikes (against) the terrorist criminals in any place," Barzani said in the interview, when asked about the possibility of Kurdish action against militants in Iraq or Syria.
"Our duty is to protect the Kurds if we are able," he said.
"Our opinion is that the Kurds must stand at the same distance" from all parties in the conflict, so "the Kurdish people are not forced into a war" from which they will gain nothing, Barzani said.
News Code: 5654 | Date: 2013/10/13 | Time: 14 : 17