Americans raid Iranian liaison office in Erbil
Ilnur Cevik - The New Anatolian - Erbil
12 January 2007
Font Size: default medium large American troops descended on Erbil in two or three helicopters and raided an Iranian liaison office early Thursday, arresting a number of officials, Kurdish eyewitnesses reported.
The eyewitnesses said at least two helicopters landed troops in the central 30 Meter Road in Erbil in the capital of the Kurdish north. The troops then assaulted the side street where the Iranian liaison office is located.
People living in the neighborhood reported a firefight and then saw American troops escorting people from the liaison office. They said they heard gunfire and claimed hand grenades were used. It was not certain whether there were any casualties.
Eyewitnesses said the people living in the neighborhood could not leave their homes. However, some did and at least three were arrested, including a Turkmen man whose wife told The New Anatolian her husband had been taken away by American soldiers. She did not want to be identified. According to the eyewitnesses, American soldiers also took away arms and documents from the office.
The American helicopters stayed in Erbil until 5 a.m. and then departed, according to eyewitnesses.
Kurdish officials were not available for comment. Many of them, including Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, are out of Iraq. The New Anatolian tried to contact the government spokesman but he was away on a vacation in Sweden. Attempts to call the presidential office of Massoud Barzani also failed.
The New Anatolian visited the site of the incident Thursday afternoon. The area was swarming with Special Forces of the Kurdish military. One soldier waved The New Anatolian reporters away, saying no incident had occurred in the neighborhood.
The incident happened a few hours after Kurdish region President and Kurdistan Democracy Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani received a senior Iranian government official. Senior KDP officials, including Interior Minister Karim Sincari, were at the meeting. This suggested the Kurdish leadership was not informed of an imminent American raid against an Iranian target in Erbil.
This was the first such raid by America troops in Erbil in nearly one-and-a-half years. The last time the U.S. forces carried out such a mission was against a student dormitory in Erbil.
The raid came at 2 a.m. Thursday, around the time U.S. President George W. Bush unveiled a new plan to end the violence in Iraq. The president will increase the number of ground forces by 20,000, brushing aside the Baker-Hamilton report that advised him to diplomatically enlist the help of Iran and Syria to end the Iraqi violence.
The Kurds enjoy close relations with Iran, and it was not certain how this incident would affect relations between them and Tehran.
Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani met with American Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah and discussed the Bush plan. Talabani is scheduled to pay a state visit to Syria this weekend.
TNA SUPPLEMENTS
Erbil province in northern Iraq
The U.S. armed forces detained five Iranians working at a "liaison office" located in Erbil, Iraq before dawn on Friday. Sources said that the U.S. forces first landed their helicopters around the building, then broke through the office's gate, disarmed the guards, confiscated some documents and certain objects, arrested five suspected terrorists, and then left for an undisclosed location.

However, there was no raid on the Iranian Consulate General as earlier reported. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Agence France-Presse that the building raided was "not a consulate or a government building", which appears to be confirmed by the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, who said the Iranians were working at an office that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as a consulate, but was not a Consulate nor the Iranian Consulate General.  The US is strategically insisting that they raided a "liaison office" instead of a Consulate to avoid being found in violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Kamynin said that the raid was absolutely unacceptable and was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The Kurdistan Regional Government also expressed their shock and disapproval of the raid.

On Thursday's hearing on Iraq, Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delware), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the Bush Administration did not have the authority to send U.S. troops on cross-border raids. Biden said, "I believe the present authorization granted the president to use force in Iraq does not cover that, and he does need congressional authority to do that. I just want to set that marker."  After the meeting, Biden sent a follow-up letter to the White House asking for an explanation from the Bush Administration on the matter.

On Thursday morning, Iran's foreign ministry official sent a letter to Iraq's foreign ministry asking Iraq to stop the Bush Administration from interfering with Iraq-Iran relations, and has protested the raid on its liaison office. The official said, "We expect the Iraqi government to take immediate measures to set the aforesaid individuals free and to condemn the U.S. troopers for the measure. Following up on the case and releasing the arrestees is a responsibility of primarily the Iraqi government and then the local government and officials of the Iraqi Kurdistan."