Iran has carried out more than 1,000 drone and missile attacks on the Kurdistan Region. Many of them targeted Kurdish opposition groups.
Iran continued its drone attacks on Kurdish Iranian opposition groups. Iran has struck the Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq, according to reports in local Kurdish media and a statement from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI). KDPI said that “at 12:01, a drone struck the Azadi camp in Koya.”
This occurred in the middle of the day, just after noon. Images online showed a drone flying through the sky. Koya is located between Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, and Sulimaniyeh, which is on the border of Iran. Koya has long been an area where Kurdish Iranian dissident groups have camps and housing for their members who have fled Iran over the last decades.
Rudaw media in the Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq added that “two drones struck a camp belonging to the Iranian Kurdish opposition group, Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), in Erbil province's Koya district on Monday, causing material damage but no casualties, a senior party official and a security source told Rudaw English, as Kurdish political leaders gathered in Erbil for a regional forum.”
This is important because Iran continues to show that it will attack Kurdish groups. US forces left Iraq on September 30. Many Kurdish leaders expressed concern this could leave their region in northern Iraq vulnerable.
They lack air defenses, and Baghdad has denied them the air defenses they need for protection. Iraq itself generally does not have proper air defenses, a result of years of misrule and also the inability of Baghdad to acquire defensive systems.
Iran carries out over 1,000 strikes in Kurdistan region
Iran has carried out more than 1,000 drone and missile attacks on the Kurdistan Region. Many of them targeted Kurdish opposition groups. Iran’s goal is to threaten and intimidate these groups and terrorize the region. Iran doesn’t want the groups leading any kind of uprising in the Kurdish regions of western Iran.
Rudaw noted that the KDPI camp “had been evacuated before the attack and no one remained at the site. A security source also confirmed to Rudaw English a second drone attack on the same site.” KDPI said, “This is the 175th time the Islamic Republic has attacked the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).”
Meanwhile, the KDPI spokesperson Khalid Azizi told Rudaw that the group was not sending its forces into Iraq. KDPI appears to be trying to reduce tensions. An Iranian diplomat recently appeared to threaten the Kurdistan Region.
The KRG government in Erbil has long sought to balance its relations with Iran while also having some of the Kurdish opposition groups present.
“We have discussed this with both the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG]. We have decided and pledged that we will not turn Iraqi Kurdistan or Iraq into a rear front,” Khalid Azizi, the KDPI spokesperson, told Rudaw’s Hiwa Jamal on Monday.
Rudaw noted that “Azizi said the party saw no need to deploy armed units into Iranian Kurdistan, arguing that Kurdish opposition groups and their supporters inside Iran were already engaged in a civil struggle.”
Suicide drones utilized by IRGC
The Hana Human Rights group, which focuses on human rights violations in Iranian Kurdistan, described the drone attack targeting the housing complex for families of the KDPI.
“According to information received by the Hana Human Rights Organization, Iranian Islamic Republic suicide drones that had flown from Piranshahr toward the Kurdistan Region of Iraq targeted one of the camps housing the families of members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in Koysinjaq (Koya).”
The new attack comes days after KDPI issued a statement on Friday responding to comments by Iranian Consul General Faramarz Asadi, who accused Kurdish opposition parties of forming an alliance under pressure from foreign powers.
The KDPI defended the Alliance of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan, announced in February, which brings together several Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.
The alliance was a "political decision aimed at cooperation and coordination to achieve the legitimate aspirations of the Kurdish nation in its own homeland. It is not evidence supporting the accusations Tehran has leveled against them," the KDPI said. Iran has called the Kurdish groups “terrorists.”
Hours after the Iranian diplomat made his comments, two explosive-laden drones targeted a base belonging to the Khabat Organization of Iranian Kurdistan near Erbil.