PJAK Ringleader Arrested in Germany

TEHRAN (FNA)- Germen security forces arrested the ringleader and two senior members of an Iraq-based armed opposition of the Islamic Republic called Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) - an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).




FNA correspondent in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region reported that the terrorist gang leader, Abdurrahman Hajji Ahmadi, was arrested at his residence in Germany.

The 2-hour long operation was carried out by 12 members of the German anti-terrorism police units, the report said, adding that the police had seized Ahamdi's phone set, PC and also other communication equipments.

Police also arrested Ramzi Kartel and Zobayr Aydan, two senior members of the terrorist group in another operation.

Kartel and Aydan were arrested in a hideout commonly used by the members of the terrorist group.

PJAK, a militant Kurdish nationalist group with bases in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq, has been carrying out numerous attacks in western Iran, southern Turkey and the northeastern parts of Syria where the Kurdish populations live.

The separatist group has been fighting to establish an autonomous state, or possibly a new world country, in the area after separating Kurdish regions from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

The outlawed group has been staging attacks across the border in Iran since 2004 in an attempt to establish an independent Kurdish state.

An April 10, 2006 report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were establishing contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups in Iran such as the PJAK rebels.

Later in November 2006 Hersh wrote that, "Israel and the United States have also been working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan.

"The group has been conducting clandestine cross-border forays into Iran," Hersh added.

According to Hersh, Israel has been providing the Kurdish group with "equipment and training." The group has also been given "a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the US."

The development came two weeks after Iran arrested another notorious terrorist, Abdolmalek Rigi, the ringleader of the Pakistan-based Jundollah terrorist group.