SIDAKAN, Kurdistan Region – Iran firing artillery across the border into the Kurdistan Region killed two members of a Kurdish opposition group on Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, two of our Peshmerga, named Rahim Rostam from Mahabad and Idris Darwesh from Piranshar, joined the path our nation's martyrs," a
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI)
statement read.
Local officials said the bombardments have caused fires.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Tuesday afternoon intensely bombed the villages of Binerashken, Bane, Binpareza, Barhol, Barchikha, Katina, and Barbizen. The bombing has caused fires in the area, but claimed no lives,” Ihsan Chalabi, the mayor of town Sidakan, had initially told Rudaw.
Some villagers have evacuated their homes due to the shelling. Video shared by human rights agency Hengaw appears to show a family fleeing shelling in the area.
توپخانەهای سپاه پاسداران در حال توپباران کوهستان های اقلیم کوردستان هستند
— Hengaw Organization (@HengawO) July 17, 2018
امروز سیدکانhttps://t.co/7QjgWAJwRV pic.twitter.com/8GbFO2KFrm
Mayor Chalabi said the fire department is on standby, but they have not been able to access the area yet because of ongoing shelling.
Farzang Ahmad, mayor of the sub-district of Haji Omran, said Iran is shelling areas along the border, but no casualties have been immediately reported.
The area is roughly 100 kilometres northeast of Erbil.
Iran has shelled areas inside the Kurdistan Region on several occasions on the pretext of the presence of armed Kurdish groups on its border. Some shepherds were displaced by shelling on Friday.
Turkey also carries out military campaigns within the Kurdistan Region against the PKK. Turkish armed forces on Tuesday announced they had killed eight “terrorists” in their latest air operations.
The KRG has called on armed groups not to launch attacks against neighboring countries from Kurdistan Region territory.
Updated at 9:10 a.m.
