‘It’s not over’: Iranian Kurds in Iraq in Tehran’s crosshairs
The roof is caved in, a wall has exploded and broken glass litters the floor at a base of the exiled Kurdish-iranian opposition in mountainous northern Iraq.
“These are the regime's missiles,” said Karim Farkhapour, a leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), with a revolver strapped to his traditional belt. “The Iranian regime has bombed us three times in less than two months.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been torn by over two months of protests sparked by the death in custody of Kurdish-iranian woman Mahsa Amini, 22.
As Iranians have vented their anger at the regime, Tehran has blamed outside forces, and exiled Kurdish groups on whose bases it has rained down missiles and socalled suicide drones.
The PDKI'S headquarters, dubbed “the Castle”, near the town of Koysinjaq, or Koya in Kurdish, looks like a desert mountain
fort straight out of an adventure novel.
The movement settled there in 1993 during the era of former dictator Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in the 2003 Us-led attack and executed three years later. Twelve PDKI members were killed and 20 wounded in the latest attacks on the site, said Farkhapour.
PDKI members have evacuated the fort, which remains heavily damaged, with cables dangling from the library roof and books scattered on the floor.
In another room, Farkhapour stepped gingerly through the rubble to reach a Kurdish flag that remained unscathed.
“The Tehran regime is going to target us again,” he predicted grimly. “It's not over, you'll see.”
It was not the first time Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched strikes against the PDKI or other groups in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Iranian government labels these factions “terrorists” accusing them of fuelling the civil unrest since the September 16 death of Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly breaching Iran's strict dress code for women.
Iran has accused the groups of importing weapons from Iraq across the porous border long used by smuggling networks. — afp