“Since 4am, Iran has been regularly bombarding the mountains in the vicinity of Barbzin, creating fear among the villagers. The lives of people who own livestock and farmers are in danger,” Mohammed Majid, mukhtar (chieftain) of the village, told Rudaw.
The village has been under fire since Thursday when Iran launched attacks against Kurdish opposition groups located within Kurdistan Region borders, sending warplanes, drones, and suicide drones across the border. Areas around Choman, Sidakan, and Haji Omran in northeastern Erbil province are the focus of the attacks. Barbzin is located in the Sidakan area.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), which has bases in the targeted area, confirmed the attack in a tweet, saying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “carried out aerial attacks for a third day in a row targeting civilian regions of Barbzin and Sidakan.”
On Monday, an IRGC commander threatened to launch an assault on the groups after several recent deadly clashes and told civilians to stay out of harm’s way.
“Given the condition in the region and the possibility of a severe and decisive response by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the terrorist groups… nested in the northern Iraqi region, we call on the people of these regions to stay away from the bases of these terrorist groups so they do not come to any harm,” said IRGC commander Mohammed Pakpour.
On Friday, the IRGC used a Quranic verse to justify their attacks, quoting a verse that calls on the faithful to “fight the disbelievers.”
Kurdish opposition parties have struggled for decades to secure the rights of Kurds within Iran. From the mid-1990s until 2015, the parties based in the Kurdistan Region generally stayed away from clashing with Iranian security forces, but since early 2015 these groups, namely KDPI, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDP-I) and Komala, have deployed units to the mountainous areas close to Iranian borders. From there they have sent units inside Iran and clashed with IRGC and other security forces.
The Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and based in mountains out of the reach of Kurdistan Region security forces, has sporadically clashed with Iranian security forces over the last two decades. In recent years the number of clashes between Kurdish opposition parties and the IRGC has increased.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which has cordial relations with Tehran, has called on armed Iranian Kurdish opposition groups not to launch attacks against neighboring countries from Kurdistan Region territory.
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