Iran seeks to turn Iraq’s Shabaks into Hezbollah / KURDS CONVERTED INTO HEZBOLLAH

Shwan Barzinji – BasNews (Erbil): 25.10.2013 – Iran appears to want to bring Iraq’s Shabak people closer to the Iranian regime, and mould them into an Iraqi version of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.

 The Iranian Consul General to Erbil, Seyed Azim Hussiani, met with leaders of the Shabak community, and reports have emerged claiming that Iran wants the Iraqi minority to have an independent territory in northern Iraq, like Hezbollah does in southern Lebanon. Sami Shabak tells BasNews that Iran seeks to take advantage of Iraqi Shabaks in order to preserve its interests in Iraq. “Iran wants to attract minorities in the Kurdistan Region, one of them being the Shabaks,” he said.

Iranian officials have allegedly told the Shabaks to build their strength, and they will receive help from Teheran. The population of Shabaks was estimated at around 15,000 in the 1970s, but it is believed to be 60,000 today. After the Iraq War in 2003 the Shabaks faced several terrorist attacks. More recently, a female suicide bomber killed 21 people in a bombing at a Shabak funeral near Mosul in Northern Iraq. Shabaks are part of the Kurdish people, and live primarily in the villages of Ali Rash, Khazna, Yangidja and Tallara, in Iraqi Kurdistan. They are Muslim; 65% of them are Shiite, and 35% are Sunni.

http://www.basnews.net/en/News/Details/Iran-seeks-to-turn-Iraq-s-Shabaks-into-Hezbollah/4447