SULAIMANIYA, Iraq – Iran carried out cross-border ballistic missile and drone attacks on Iranian Kurdish opposition bases in Iraq on Monday, killing at least two people and At least nine people were injured, according to opposition groups.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency on Monday said security forces had targeted “terrorist groups” with missiles and drones. They blame the groups for fuel the protests that have swept Iran since the death in custody in September of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman accused of violating the headscarf law.
Iran’s Kurdistan Democratic Party said two of its members were killed and at least nine seriously injured when their main base near the city of Koya in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region was hit by a Fateh-110 ballistic missile. hit by Iran, according to the party’s deputy. Amanj Zebaii. He said the group’s five smaller mountain bases in the Sidakan area were also hit.
The director of Koya’s main hospital, Sherwan Jalal, said ambulances had been dispatched but could not enter the base because of the risk of continued air strikes. He said it was believed there were more casualties under the rubble. Mr. Jalal said Koya residents are coming to donate blood for the injured.
Another major opposition group, Komala, the Iranian Kurdish Communist Party, said its base near Sulaimaniya island was also attacked on Monday morning but suffered no casualties. A Komala official, Navid Mehrawar, said the base was hit by five suicide drones.
Kurdish media outlets have posted videos of air raid sirens blaring from the US consulate in the heart of the Kurdish capital Erbil.
Monday’s attacks were the first since few days Iran strike In late September, 18 people were killed, including a pregnant woman, and wounded nearly 60 people at and around opposition bases across the region, according to Health Ministry officials. Kurds.
Iranian refugees, including women and children, were among the casualties, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Several armed Iranian Kurdish opposition groups have maintained bases for years near the border in neighboring Iraq. They say they keep their weapons – mainly rifles and rocket-propelled grenades – for self-defense and to help secure the Iraqi border.
One of the groups, PAK, is part of a coalition of US-backed Kurdish fighters fighting Islamic State after it took over parts of northern Iraq in 2014.
Iran has repeatedly demanded that Iraq close opposition bases and disarm the militants.
Iraq’s new prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, told reporters in Baghdad on Saturday that the leader of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region had rejected a request for disarmament.
