Iranian troops 'cross Iraq border'

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http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/1064640/iranian-troops-cross-iraq-border

Iranian troops 'cross Iraq border'

06:58 AEST Sun Jun 6 2010

A senior Kurdish official in northern Iraq says Iranian troops have crossed the

Iraqi border in pursuit of Iranian Kurdish rebels.

Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern

Iraq, said on Saturday that 35 Iranian soldiers remain in the Iraqi village of

Perdunaz after crossing the border last Thursday.

Yawar said the Iranian troops have ventured about 1.6km into Iraq. Perdunaz is

an Iraqi border town east of the Kurdish capital of Irbil.

He said Iranian troops have been shelling the region for days in pursuit of a

Kurdish rebel group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK.

Iran has previously targeted the border areas in pursuit of PEJAK fighters.

Iraq's Defence Ministry declined comment.