Iranian drones target Kurdish forces on Erbil-Kirkuk border

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian drones on Tuesday hit the military base of an Kurdish party from Iran in Prde town, along the Erbil and Kirkuk border, according to the commander of the Kurdish force who said casualty information was unclear. 

Hussein Yazdanpanah, Head of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, told Rudaw on Tuesday that his forces came under drone attack by Iran earlier in the day. 

Telegram channels affiliated to Iran's the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed that the forces launched an attack targeting PAK bases in the Kurdistan Region. 

PAK has helped Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) since 2014. 

Iran on Monday attacked Iranian-Kurdish armed groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and Komala, in the Region’s Erbil and Sulaimani provinces with missiles and drones. The attacks came after IRGC’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani last week threatened ground operations by Iran against opposition parties taking shelter inside Iraqi land.

Mohammed Salih Qadri, head of KDPI relations, told Rudaw on Monday that Iranian renaissance drones were continuously flying over their refugee camps in Koya city where the families of the party’s fighters live. 

“There is a huge threat against the Rojhelat refugee camps … We call on the Kurdistan Regional Government to urgently prevent these attacks,” he said. 

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said in a tweet on Monday that the ongoing attacks by Tehran are “intolerable.”

“Iraq must act as one in order not to give room to further hostilities. Strength abroad begins with unity at home,” she added.