Iran launches new strikes against Kurdish groups in Iraq, The second such attack in a week was launched by Iran against Kurdish opposition groups located in Iraqi Kurdistan late on Sunday, according to the groups and local authorities. Tehran accuses the organizations of inciting instability in Iran, which has been rocked by demonstrations for two months following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman. Days after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the nation’s stringent clothing code for women, Amini passed away while in detention on September 16.
Iran launches new strikes against Kurdish groups in Iraq
Iran’s “Revolutionary Guard Corps have again bombarded Iranian Kurdish parties”, the counter-terrorism department of Iraqi Kurdistan said, without mentioning if there were casualties. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) said Iran had targeted it with missiles and suicide drones in Koya and Jejnikan, near Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
“These indiscriminate attacks are occurring at a time when the terrorist regime of Iran is unable to stop the ongoing demonstrations in (Iranian) Kurdistan,” the PDKI, the oldest Kurdish party in Iran, said. Iranian Kurdish nationalist group Komala said strikes had also targeted its installations in northern Iraq.
“Our HQ was once again attacked by the Islamic Regime tonight. We’ve been carefully prepared for these types of attacks & have no losses for the moment,” it said on Twitter. The US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, condemned the “illegal” Iranian strikes near Arbil.
“We condemn this evening’s Iranian cross-border missile and unmanned aerial vehicle strikes,” Centcom commander General Michael Kurilla said in a statement. “Such indiscriminate and illegal attacks place civilians at risk, violate Iraqi sovereignty, and jeopardise the hard-fought security and stability of Iraq and the Middle East.”
Early on Monday, the Iranian missile and drone strikes against “three Iranian opposition parties in (Iraqi) Kurdistan” were also covered by the Iraqi state news agency INA. Less than a week ago, Iran carried out such cross-border attacks that resulted in at least one fatality. Tehran has intensified its attacks since the protests started and blames Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups stationed in northern Iraq for inciting the “riots” at home.
In the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, Iran conducted strikes in late September that resulted in the deaths of over a dozen individuals. Several Iranian Kurdish opposition organizations that have in the past engaged in armed insurrection against Tehran are based in Iraqi Kurdistan. Their activity has decreased recently, but the wave of protests in Iran has again stoked tensions.