Iran shells Kurdish militants bases in N.Iraq: Kurdish official

The shelling on the towns of Marado, Razda and Dolakoka started at 7:00 a.m. and lasted for about two hours, said Azad Watho, a top administrative official in Sulaimaniyah city. Watho, who is administratively in charge of these towns, said the shelling had targeted the fighters of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK, but had no more details.

Sulaimaniyah, one of three provinces that make up Iraq's semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, is located about 260 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Tehran had no immediate comment on the report and officials could not be reached because of the official Nowruz, or New Year, holiday in the Persian nation. The Iranian army frequently shells villages in the mountains of northern Iraq where it alleges that members from PEJAK, a breakaway faction of the outlawed separatist PKK, are based.

In a similar shelling by Iran last September, a former chief of the elite Revolutionary Guard, said Tehran considers shelling the guerrilla its right in order to protect its security. Iran repeatedly has said the PEJAK regularly launch attacks inside Iran from bases in Iraq in the Qandil Mountain area that borders Iran and Turkey.

Last August, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari strongly criticized Iranian artillery and warned that it would negatively effect the relations between the two neighboring countries. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the collapse of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Iraqi government has had good relations with Iran.

The two countries experienced an eight year war, launched by Iraq in 1980 that left 1 million killed on both sides.