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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian shelling of Erbil province’s Sidakan continued on its third consecutive day on Monday, sparking fear among locals.
The mayor of Sidakan, Ihsan Chalabi, confirmed to Rudaw that shelling in the area continued into the third day. Tasnim news agency, affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed that the bombardment was targeting bases of Kurdish opposition groups.
The shelling has become a nuisance for the at least 100 families living in the villages of Rashkin, Darhol, and Binpareza in Sidakan.
"At least 50 artillery pieces landed," Ahmed Saeed, a villager in the Barbazin area told Rudaw’s Bakhtyar Qadir on Sunday. "By God, they were falling like rain right near our houses,” he added, describing the bombardment.
"Our family, including children, were screaming. What should we do? We are forced to flee."
No casualties have been reported since the beginning of the latest wave of shelling which comes at a time of growing unrest in Iran over the killing of young Kurdish woman while in detention last week.
“They were shelling us mercilessly,” another local, Zana Surchi, said.
IRGC-affiliated media Fars News on Saturday defined the attacks on both the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and Komala, both Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups with bases in the Kurdistan Region, as a “response to the evil support of the anti-revolutionary elements for the disturbances and actions of thugs and with the aim of punishing and extorting these groups”.
“Unfortunately, many other areas deep into [the Kurdistan Region] are targeted on the pretext of hitting the military bases of the Rojhelat parties [Iranian Kurdish opposition bases],” Chalabi said.
A top official from the KDPI on Sunday told Rudaw English that the shelling by Iran has been unable to target the Kurdish party.
“Iran has been using several different artilleries and weapons to attack the Sidakan area where our Peshmerga are located since 3 pm yesterday without a stop,” Kawa Bahrami, commander of the KDPI’s Peshmerga said. “But while there has been a lot of damage to people’s farmlands, our forces remain unharmed.”
Several armed Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties, including KDPI, have bases in the Kurdistan Region mountains and are periodically shelled by Iran. They frequently clash with Iranian security forces in the Kurdish areas of western Iran.
Iran’s series of shelling this time around comes as protests against the murder of Mahsa or Jina Amini in Iranian police custody have erupted in several countries across the world and domestic demonstrations continue despite the use of violence by security forces, as well as continuous raids on houses of protestors.
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