Baghdad: Shelling of Two Kurdish Party Headquarters by IRGC Violates Iraq's Sovereignty

On Sunday, September 9, Iraq rejected the shelling of the bases of two Iranian Kurdish opposition parties by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), calling it a "violation of its sovereignty." Ahmad Mahjoub, spokesperson for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, emphasized, "Iraq is interested in (maintaining) the security of neighboring countries and opposes any use of its territory to threaten the security of these countries; therefore, Baghdad firmly rejects any violation of its sovereignty through the bombing of any target within Iraqi territory without prior approval from Iraqi officials." This statement from the Iraqi official came a day after the IRGC attacked the camps of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party near the city of Koy Sanjaq in the Kurdistan region of Iraq using drones and missiles. At least 14 people were killed and 30 others were injured, some of whom are in critical condition. The IRGC claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released on Sunday, stating, "The IRGC Aerospace Force's missile unit, in cooperation with the IRGC Ground Force's drone unit, targeted the location and meeting of the leaders of one of these groups and an affiliated training center with seven short-range surface-to-surface missiles in response to the operations of Kurdish groups in the border areas of Marivan and Kamyaran in recent weeks." An official from the Kurdistan region of Iraq condemned these attacks on Sunday, urging the Islamic Republic not to "repeat" such attacks and to respect the "laws of the Kurdistan region." Iranian and Turkish military forces regularly target the bases and military positions of their opposing Kurdish groups in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, accusing them of launching attacks against Iranian and Turkish positions from this region. According to a reporter from Radio Farda in Iraq, the missile attacks on the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Mostafa Maloudi, occurred early Saturday during a meeting of the central committee of this opposition group to the Islamic Republic. A commission from the Kurdistan Democratic Party stated that several central committee members, including Kermani Mahdavi, Ibrahim Ibrahim, Nasrin Haddad, Rahman Pirouti, and Soheila Ghaderi, were killed. The names of three Peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan are also among the deceased.