Sunday 11 August 2013


Iraqi Kurdistan 'ready to defend Syrian Kurds' against rebels

'If "it appears that innocent Kurdish citizens and women and children are under threat of death and terrorism, the Iraqi Kurdistan region will ... be prepared to defend" them, Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government said on Saturday.

Fighting between Kurdish militia and al-Qaeda-linked groups has been escalating in north and northeastern Syria in the past weeks after Kurdish fighters managed to push back militants from several positions in the area including the town of Ras al-Ain on the border with Turkey.

Barzani also called in a statement for an investigation by Iraqi Kurdish political parties into reports of "terrorists" killing Syrian Kurds.'