Renewed Iranian Strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan Leave Casualties

Tehran previously launched attacks that killed more than a dozen people in Iraq's Kurdistan region in late September. Reuters file photo
Tehran previously launched attacks that killed more than a dozen people in Iraq's Kurdistan region in late September. Reuters file photo
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Renewed Iranian Strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan Leave Casualties

Tehran previously launched attacks that killed more than a dozen people in Iraq's Kurdistan region in late September. Reuters file photo
Tehran previously launched attacks that killed more than a dozen people in Iraq's Kurdistan region in late September. Reuters file photo

One person was killed and at least 8 others were wounded on Monday when Iranian rockets and drones hit the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish parties in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

An Iranian military source confirmed that "Iran has carried out attacks with drones and missiles targeting the headquarters of terrorist parties in the northern region of Iraq," said Iran's Fars News Agency, managed by the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran has been hit by almost two months of protests since the death of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, 22, after she was arrested by the country's morality police for allegedly breaching the strict dress code for women.

Tehran previously launched attacks that killed more than a dozen people in Iraq's Kurdistan region in late September, after accusing Kurdish armed groups based there of stoking the wave of unrest.

Monday's attacks struck targets near Erbil and Sulaimaniya. A hospital official in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Koye told Reuters that two people were killed and at least 10 wounded in the attacks.

Tariq al-Haidari, mayor of Koysanjaq, told AFP that "five Iranian missiles targeted a building used by the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran".

"One person is dead and eight wounded," said the health ministry in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Other strikes hit elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"Four drone strikes" targeted bases of the Iranian Communist Party and the Iranian Kurdish nationalist group Komala in the Zrgoiz region, said Atta Seqzi, one of the leaders of Komala.

The UN mission in Iraq condemned the renewed Iranian missile and drone attacks, which it said “violate Iraqi sovereignty.”

“Iraq should not be used as an arena to settle scores and its territorial integrity must be respected. Dialogue between Iraq and Iran over mutual security concerns is the only way forward,” said UNAMI.

The US Consulate in Erbil also condemned the attack on Iraqi Kurdistan.

It called on Iran “to stop attacking its neighbor and the people of Iraq,” and condemned the violation of Iraqi sovereignty.



Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)

Iran is "pressing the gas pedal" on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday, adding that Iran's recently announced acceleration in enrichment was starting to take effect.

Grossi said last month that Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would "dramatically" accelerate enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% of weapons grade.

Western powers called the step a serious escalation and said there was no civil justification for enriching to that level and that no other country had done so without producing nuclear weapons. Iran has said its program is entirely peaceful and it has the right to enrich uranium to any level it wants.

"Before it was (producing) more or less seven kilograms (of uranium enriched to up to 60%) per month, now it's above 30 or more than that. So I think this is a clear indication of an acceleration. They are pressing the gas pedal," Grossi told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

According to an International Atomic Energy Agency yardstick, about 42 kg of uranium enriched to that level is enough in principle, if enriched further, for one nuclear bomb. Grossi said Iran currently had about 200 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

Still, he said it would take time to install and bring online the extra centrifuges - machines that enrich uranium - but that the acceleration was starting to happen.

"We are going to start seeing steady increases from now," he said.

Grossi has called for diplomacy between Iran and the administration of new US President Donald Trump, who in his first term, pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that had imposed strict limits on Iran's atomic activities. That deal has since unraveled.

"One can gather from the first statements from President Trump and some others in the new administration that there is a disposition, so to speak, to have a conversation and perhaps move into some form of an agreement," he said.

Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at Davos that Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.