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Ignoring Iraqi Protest, Iran Continues Bombing Kurdistan Region Villages

An injured man walks following an Iranian cross-border attack in the area of Zargwez, around 15 kilometers from the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah on September 28, 2022. (Photo by AFP)
An injured man walks following an Iranian cross-border attack in the area of Zargwez, around 15 kilometers from the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah on September 28, 2022. (Photo by AFP)
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Ignoring Iraqi Protest, Iran Continues Bombing Kurdistan Region Villages

An injured man walks following an Iranian cross-border attack in the area of Zargwez, around 15 kilometers from the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah on September 28, 2022. (Photo by AFP)
An injured man walks following an Iranian cross-border attack in the area of Zargwez, around 15 kilometers from the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah on September 28, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

Iranian artillery on Thursday resumed attacking civilian sites north of the city of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

The renewed Iranian shelling hit the Sidekan sub-district of the Soran region.

“The attack targeted the Saqar and Barzini regions in Sidekan,” said Ihsan Shalabi, Sidekan’s mayor.

“It did not result in casualties or injuries among civilians,” noted Shalabi.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf had announced on Wednesday that the ministry will summon the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad to hand him a strongly worded protest note due to the continuous bombing of areas in the Kurdistan region.

A day after al-Sahaf’s announcement, the ministry released a statement that affirmed it summoned Ambassador Mohammad Kadhim Al Sadiq and handed him a “strongly worded note of protest.”

“The strongly worded message included the Iraqi government’s condemnation, which represented the continuation of Iranian forces’ encroachment on Iraq’s sovereignty,” the statement said, adding that Iranian attacks targeting Iraqi civilians cannot be tolerated.

In the statement, the ministry demanded that Iran respects Iraqi sovereignty and commitments made to international covenants.

It also affirmed that Iranian attacks threaten to destabilize the region.

The Kurdistan Region Parliament also expressed its condemnation of the attacks.

“Iranian shelling is repeatedly targeting the governorates of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah under the pretext of the presence of Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties,” explained the Parliament.

“On behalf of the Kurdistan Parliament, we strongly condemn the attacks and bombardment, and they cannot continue under any pretext or justification,” said Kurdistan Parliament Deputy Speaker Hemin Hawrami.

Hawrami voiced Iraqi Kurdistan’s desire for serious relations with neighboring countries. But he stressed that those relations must abide by international covenants, principles of good neighborliness, non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and mutual respect for territorial sovereignty.

The deputy speaker stressed the importance of not using Iraqi Kurdistan territory as a launching pad for attacks against neighboring countries. Hawrami also called on the federal government and the international community to take serious positions on Iran’s ongoing violation.

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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)

France held a national day of mourning for Mayotte, its Indian Ocean territory devastated by a violent cyclone on Dec. 14, beginning in the morning on Monday with a minute of silence for the scores of residents left dead by the storm.

Cyclone Chido was the worst storm to hit Mayotte's two main islands in 90 years, and authorities have said that perhaps thousands of people may have been killed in its wake, though the government's death toll stands at 35.

To commemorate Mayotte's losses, French flags were lowered to half-mast. Separately, flags were flown at half-mast in Brussels and Strasbourg because of Mayotte, as well as following attacks last week on a German Christmas market and in a Croatian school.

"It is a communion in mourning," Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told reporters. He said the day showed solidarity for those in Mayotte, and that France was "present to reconstruct Mayotte and make sure the people of Mayotte feel surrounded by the entire country."

Following the storm, officials say corpses may have been buried quickly per religious custom, before they could be counted, and that many of the people killed may have been undocumented immigrants.

Mozambique has said 94 people died in the disaster, while 13 were killed in neighboring Malawi.

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The slow pace of aid and delays in the arrival of clean water have angered residents of Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory located between Madagascar and Mozambique about 8,000 km (4971 miles) from the mainland, with some heckling President Emmanuel Macron during his visit last week.

For Mohamed Abdou, a doctor in Pamandzi, the day of French mourning was a political stunt and did not do enough to account for historic neglect leading up to this point.

"Whether in terms of hospitals, the lack of water infrastructure, electricity, and so on ... at this point, we need to say 'mea culpa' and acknowledge mistakes were made," he told Reuters, speaking from his town in the south of Mayotte's smaller island.

Francois-Noel Buffet, France's acting minister of overseas territories, told France 2 that water - a flashpoint even before the disaster - had made it to the island, saying: "We are not missing water. We have water, notably bottled water. We have a problem with distribution."

Buffet said he expected a special law on the reconstruction of Mayotte to be introduced in early January.

In Paris, Bayrou, France's fourth prime minister this year, is expected to unveil his cabinet Monday evening, though the timing was uncertain. The French presidency said the announcement would not take place before 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), to take into account the day of mourning.

Estelle Youssouffa, a lawmaker for Mayotte, criticized the government in an interview with Radio France Internationale for possibly making the announcement on the day of mourning, accusing Bayrou, who had not yet visited the islands, of "humiliating us a second time."