For decades, Iranian Kurdish opposition groups found relative refuge in neighboring Iraq, where they set up bases and enjoyed more freedoms.

In their report - published by the British newspaper "Financial Times" - the two writers, Ria Chalabi and Najma Bozorgmehr, said that in recent weeks the strongholds of the Kurdish opposition have been subjected to a barrage of Tehran's fire, which launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles across the border into the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

According to the two authors, Iran accuses the Iranian Kurds based in Iraq of supporting the anti-government protests that have swept the country since mid-September, after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.


"We are being used as a scapegoat," Khalil Naderi, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Freedom Party, one of the armed Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraq, said.

Naderi explained that at least 19 members of the Kurdistan Freedom Party have been killed since the attacks on their bases began in late September, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that Iranian refugees - including women and children - were among the victims of the aforementioned month's attacks.

distract

According to the authors, all of these attacks were launched to divert the international community's attention from the internal affairs and situation in Iran.

According to the New York Times report, Amnesty International said that at least 305 people have been killed in Iran since the outbreak of the protests, including at least 41 children, and 42 of these people were killed in the past week only when the protests gained momentum in the Kurdish-majority western cities, including Including Mahabad and Javanrud.

Iran says these groups smuggle weapons across borders and foment protests, with the country's foreign minister saying last Wednesday that there are "76 terrorist bases" involved in such activities, accusations the groups deny.


The current escalating tensions threaten to overwhelm the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, which has called for international intervention to stop the attacks and has complex relations with Baghdad and the Iranian Kurds. Our economy is taking a serious hit."

Baghdad position

The nascent government of the new Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia' al-Sudani, receives support from parties and armed groups close to Tehran. Al-Sudani condemned the recent attacks launched by Tehran on the Kurds, describing them as a "violation of Iraqi sovereignty."

The two writers stated that in a meeting held in Baghdad last week with al-Sudani and other government officials, Ismail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force, threatened the guard wing responsible for its foreign operations, to launch a ground invasion if Baghdad failed to disarm the groups and fortify its borders, according to what 3 Iraqi and Kurdish officials told the newspaper. Financial Times".

Al-Sudani said that the KRG rejected a request to disarm the Iranian Kurdish groups, which a KRG official denied had happened. The official in Baghdad said that before this week's attacks, Al-Sudani sent his national security adviser to Tehran to try to negotiate a solution.