Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Iranian Kurdish fighters said they would be deployed in
Syria to help establish an autonomous region near the Turkish border.

The Party of Free Life in Kurdistan said it would send fighters to join
their counterparts in northern Syria. In a statement, Free Life, known as
the Iranian branch of the Kurdish Workers Party, said the Syrian Kurds were
under threat from both the regime of President Bashar Assad as well as the
Free Syrian Army.

“This calls for a collective stand from the rest of Kurdistan to help their brothers there [in Syria],” Free Life said.

The statement on Aug. 5 did not say how many Iranian Kurds would arrive in Syria. Kurdish sources said the community in northern Syria was already being helped by the PKK, based in northern Iraq as well as southeastern Turkey.

In July, the Democratic Union Party, which represents Syrian Kurds, expelled both FSA as well as Al Qaida-aligned militias from several areas of the north. On Aug. 5, at least 63 people were reported killed in a battle
between Kurdish fighters and Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant as
well as Al Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant.

“We are fully prepared to send fighters to western Kurdistan to defend
the gains that have been made there,” Free Life said. “We have also provided
our political and moral support to the struggle of the Kurdish people in
west Kurdistan, so we are declaring our complete readiness to send fighters
there.”

But Kurdish sources said Al Nusra and ISISL were recruiting Kurds with
promises of money and power. They said Al Nusra was also recruiting from
northern Iraq, controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government.

“We call upon spiritual leaders to prevent Kurdish youths from falling
to misleading invitations to fight their brothers,” the Muslim Scholars
Union of Kurdistan said.

  Al Nusra Front, Bashar Assad, Free Syrian Army, Iran Kurds sending fighters to ‘help their brothers’ in Syria, Kurdish Workers Party, Party of Free Life in Kurdistan