ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - 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.
“At 12:05, a drone struck the Azadi camp in Koya,” the KDPI official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. They added that “there were no injuries or anything, only material damage.”
The official said the 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.
“This is the 166th time the Islamic Republic has attacked the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI),” the party official said, referring specifically to attacks against the party rather than other Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.
The strike came hours after KDPI spokesperson Khalid Azizi told Rudaw that the party had ruled out sending Peshmerga fighters from the Kurdistan Region into western Iran to conduct military operations, reiterating its commitment not to use Iraqi territory as a launchpad for attacks against Tehran, a pretext used by Iran to attack the Iranian Kurdish groups in the Region since the outbreak of its war with the US in late February.
“We have discussed this with both the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government. We have decided and pledged that we will not turn Iraqi Kurdistan or Iraq into a rear front,” Azizi told Rudaw early Monday.
The attack also coincided with the gathering of senior Iraqi and Kurdish political leaders, diplomats and regional policymakers in Erbil for the annual Middle East Research Institute (MERI) Forum, during which discussions on regional security, political deadlock, Kurdish rights and the future of the Middle East would be held.
