ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The body of a fighter associated with a Kurdish Iranian opposition group was found in Erbil stabbed and shot with a pistol amidst increasing threats by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Kurdish groups based in the Kurdistan Region.
The killing of the member of Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) comes one day after a unit of Kurdish opposition group clashed with the Iranian security forces in Baneh city in western Iran (Rojhelat), killing two members of the latter and wounding at least two others.
Adib Khaldyan, a leadership member of the PAK, identified the member to Rudaw as Soran Mohammadzadeh and stated that he was a member of the secret committees of the party inside Iran. The official refused to divulge any more information about the incident.
The IRGC Intelligence and Iran's Ministry of Intelligence have in the past carried out a number of assassinations in Erbil and Sulaimania province.
"We are waiting for the security forces' investigation to determine how the incident occurred," Khaldyan said.
He also said “they are certain” that Iran is behind the killing of their member “as they have carried out similar operations in the past.”
Iran labels the Kurdish dissent groups as "separatists" and “terrorist,” justifying targeted assassinations by on-the-ground operations as well as drone and missile attacks against them in the Kurdistan Region and abroad.
One of the most visible operations in Erbil attributed to Iran include murdering Siamand Shaboi in 2023 and Mousa Babakhani in 2021.
Both being members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), their bodies suffered injuries associated with torture being shot, according to seperate reports on their death by the Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for monitoring the status of human rights in Iran.
Hengaw has also reported murdering other members of the Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in Sulaimani, including Behruz Rahimi in 2022, who was linked to the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) and was shot by unidentified gunmen in his car on the outskirts of the city.
Furthermore, Tehran is also accused of assassinating high-tier Kurdish politicians in Europe. Most prominent examples are the killing of KDPI’s leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou in Vienna in 1989 and his successor Sadegh Sharafkani in Berlin in 1992.
Following the assassinations of Sharafkandi and his aides, a German federal court explicitly ruled that the assassinations were ordered directly by the highest echelons of the Iranian state.
This resulted in a major international diplomatic crisis, leading European Union nations to temporarily recall their ambassadors from Tehran.
