A bold move: KDPI Peshmerga enter Iranian Kurdish city, group says

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—To commemorate the death of the group’s former leader Peshmerga fighters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) crossed Iran’s borders Wednesday night and entered the city of Shino to a hero’s welcome by local residents.

The KDPI media reported that the Peshmerga entered Shino on the 23rd anniversary of the ‘assassination’ of the group’s former leader Sadeqh Sharafkandi.

The group said its Peshmerga fighters had entered Tachniwe district of Shino where they had sung the Kurdish national anthem of Ay Raqib and other revolutionary songs through a mosque’s loudspeakers.

Others had marched into the Saydabad district, singing tributes to Sharafkandi.

Sharafkandi was killed in Berlin in 1992 along with Fatah Abdoli, Humayun Ardalan and Nuri Dehkurdi in what the KDPI described the work of Iranian agents.

The KDPI reported on its official website that local residents of Shino and surrounding villages welcomed the Peshmerga with chants of “Long Live Democrats”, the local term for the KDPI.

Shino is a major Kurdish city in Western Iran in the West Azerbaijan province.

The KDPI said its Peshmerga had briefly exchanged fire with a number of local vigilantes working for the government.

In the last two decades the KDPI has ceased armed activities against Iran though in recent months its fighters have returned to the border and resumed small-scale clashes with Iranian border guards.