IRGC rains down missiles, drones on Kurdistan Region killing nine

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In a move of desperation, unable to control unrest at home, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday showered with ballistic missiles and suicide drones bases of Kurdish opposition groups in the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of fueling protest across the country.

The attacks by the IRGC, according to an initial tally obtained from the Kurdish health ministry, killed nine people and wounded 32 others with the toll expected to increase.

The IRGC in a statement confirmed the use of drones and missiles in the attacks, saying the operations will continue until all bases of Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups are dismantled and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) fulfilling its duty in doing so.

Iranian state media reported the use of Fath 360 missiles in the attack, the latest of the Islamic Republic’s satellite-oriented missile system.

The IRGC also used Shahed-136 suicide drones – a model that was exported from Iran to Russia for its ongoing war in Ukraine, according to IRNA.

Iranian drones kept circulating around the city of Koya with occasional strikes where Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) bases are located, at the time this article was written.

The attacks also targeted a school in the town of Koya where students and teachers were present.

Mohammed Salih Qaderi, head of KDPI’s public affairs told Rudaw the attack was “on the camp where women and children are, civilian people are there.”

Bases of Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups are “close by” the camp of the KDPI, he added.

“Several” Komala members have suffered slight injuries, party member Abdullah Azeber said.

The KRG “strongly” condemned the attacks on the Region’s sovereignty, saying “attacks on opposition groups through the Islamic Republic of Iran’s missiles, under any pretext, are an incorrect stance which promotes a misleading interpretation of the course of events.”

Ahmed al-Sahaf, spokesperson for Iraq’s foreign ministry, said the ministry will summon the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad “to hand him a strongly worded protest note due to the continuous bombing of areas in the Kurdistan Region.”

Iranian authorities have been in a state of panic since the Kurdish opposition groups based in Kurdistan Region in Iraq called for a general strike across the Kurdish areas in western Iran on September 19, setting off the recent wave of unrest across the country.

Iran for the past week used artillery to attack the Kurdistan Region in an attempt to target Kurdish opposition groups. The offenses were triggered by the mass protests which engulfed the country after the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in police custody with the Iranian regime unable to suppress the demonstrations.

The recent attacks, however, were proven inaccurate until Wednesday, a day after the IRGC publicly accused Kurdish groups of being behind the latest wave of protests inside the country.

“The shelling of the counter-revolutionary positions and their bases … in the northern Iraqi region is in the pursuit of this strategic approach. We have informed our friends in the [Kurdistan] Region that taking up position and establishing bases by the enemies of the Islamic revolution on their land is not acceptable,” IRGC Deputy Commander for Operations Abbas Nilforoushan said. 

KDPI, Komala, Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), and Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) all have forces inside Iranian cities. The latest attacks by Iran on the groups could escalate to armed conflict inside Iran, despite forces like the KDPI on several occasions claiming they will refrain from the use of force and let the protest movements remain civil.

The Iranian regime has taken a heavy-handed approach and detained thousands of protesters, lawyers, activists, students, women rights activists, and at least 20 journalists. In the past, security forces have subjected detainees to sexual abuse, flogging, and electric shocks.

The Iranian Regime has also come under fire internationally.

The UN has expressed concern over the violent response by the security forces and the UK representative to the UN Human Rights Council called on Iran to “carry out independent, transparent investigations into” Amini’s death and “and the excessive violence used against subsequent protests.”

The United States on Monday encouraged countries around the globe to support the Iranian people amid the ongoing protests, saying that the people of the country should be able to exercise their “universal rights.”

Washington on Thursday sanctioned Iran’s morality police, accusing the forces of being responsible for Amini’s death, in addition to seven senior security officials for allegedly overseeing the use of violence against “peaceful protesters.”

The move was followed by Canada, and Germany’s foreign ministry on Monday summoned the Iranian ambassador and called on Iranian authorities to allow peaceful protests and not use “further violence, let alone deadly violence, against demonstrators.”