BAGHDAD, May 1 (UPI) -- Iran denied it made an incursion into Iraq or bombarded suspected positions of the Kurdistan Labor Party inside the autonomous Kurdish enclave Monday.
The official Iranian News Agency, IRNA, quoted an unidentified political source as saying the reported attacks were "fabricated and prejudiced."
"Iranian armed forces are reasonable and wise when it comes to confronting desperate moves by terrorist groups on Iran's border," the source said, stressing that "Iran will carry out what is necessary to ensure security there."
Witnesses in the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq said earlier Monday the attacks targeting the PKK, whose leader Abdullah Ocalan is serving a life sentence in Turkey, were concentrated on villages in the province of Kalaa Dazza, 100 miles north of Suleimaniya, near the Iranian border.
The bombardment was mainly concentrated on the villages of Razka, Jukhanki and Shanawa, where the PKK, which is banned in Iran and Turkey, is suspected to have offices and positions.
The attacks set off fires and inflicted serious material damage on the targeted villages, but there was no immediate information on possible casualties.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry said Sunday that Iranian forces made an incursion April 21, and penetrated some three miles inside Iraqi territory in the region of Haj Omran, east of the country.
It said the Iranian forces bombarded PKK position in the area of Loulan with more than 180 heavy gun shells.
The PKK, which suffered a painful blow after Ocalan's capture in Kenya in 1999 and his immediate handover to Turkey, is fighting a guerrilla war for secession of Kurdish regions in eastern Turkey.
Ankara has repeatedly threatened to invade Kurdish northern Iraq and has made several incursions into the enclave to prevent the creation of an independent Kurdish state.
