At least nine people were killed and others wounded on Friday in a missile and drone attack suspected of having been carried out by Iran against an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, a group official said.
The attack targeted positions belonging to the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan in the Zargwezela area near Sulaymaniyah, the official said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
The group said Iran was behind the strike, the official added. Tehran did not immediately claim responsibility.
Iran has previously attacked Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region.
Abdullah Azarbar, a member of the Politburo of the Komala Party, said the attack began at around 6 a.m. and involved eight large bunker-busting missiles.
Nine members of the group’s Peshmerga forces were killed and three others seriously wounded, he added. Three missiles struck the headquarters where the casualties occurred.
A security source had earlier said a party headquarters in the Surdas subdistrict of Sulaymaniyah province had been hit by missiles. Authorities opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the attack and identify those responsible, the source said.
The Kurdistan Region Security Agency said seven missiles struck three areas in Sulaymaniyah province early on Friday.
Four landed in Zargwezela, one in Qasardi village and two near Tal Kobani in the Qaradagh area, the agency said. Its teams were still assessing casualties and material damage.
The Kurdistan Region Counter-Terrorism Service had earlier said coalition forces intercepted and destroyed eight explosive-laden drones over Erbil early on Friday. No casualties were reported.
Residents of Sulaymaniyah and Halabja provinces said they heard loud explosions in the early hours of the morning.
The Kurdistan Region Presidency condemned the missile and drone attacks on Sulaymaniyah and Erbil provinces, calling them a “dangerous development and a flagrant violation” of Iraqi sovereignty.
It warned that continued attacks could threaten Iraq’s stability and undermine efforts to strengthen security and peace in the region.
Komala repeatedly targeted
The Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan is one of Iran’s oldest opposition groups. Founded in the late 1960s as a leftist Kurdish movement, it rose to prominence during the unrest that followed Iran’s 1979 revolution.
The group later entered into armed conflict with the new authorities over Kurdish autonomy and political freedoms.
After years of fighting inside Iran, Komala moved much of its operations and many of its bases to Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, where it established political and military headquarters and camps.
It has since faced repeated Iranian attacks, particularly by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which accuses Iranian Kurdish opposition parties of seeking to destabilize the country.
Komala combines political opposition to Tehran with advocacy for Kurdish rights in Iran. Tehran says such groups pose a security threat.
The 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests renewed attention on Iranian Kurdish opposition parties, although most remained based outside Iran.
Since the war between Iran and the United States began in February, no independent tally has established a final figure for the number of attacks on Komala bases.
Available reports, however, indicate that Iranian Kurdish opposition headquarters in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region were hit by a wave of missile and drone strikes during the conflict.
According to statements by the party and its allies, sites belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition groups were repeatedly attacked, including bases linked to Komala and other parties in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah provinces.
The Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan also said missile strikes had targeted Peshmerga positions.
Human rights reports and Kurdish sources said bases belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties, including Komala, were among the targets of dozens of missile and drone attacks during the war.
