ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A member of an Iranian-Kurdish opposition organization was injured in a suspected car bomb in Erbil on Monday, with no parties claiming responsibility for the incident as of yet.
Footage of smoke surrounding a vehicle in Erbil’s Setaqan neighborhood circulated on social media on Monday morning, with eyewitnesses telling Rudaw that the car was the subject of a planted bomb.
Akbar Sinjabi, member of the organization of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle (Sazmani Khabat), was inside the car when the suspected bomb was believed to have detonated. Sinjabi is also a former member of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MKO).
“God willing, he will be fine,” Shorsh Haji, a senior member of Sazmani Khabat, told Rudaw’s Bahroz Faraidun in front of Erbil’s Western emergency hospital.
The impact reportedly wounded parts of Sinjabi’s left leg, which he is undergoing treatment for. No other casualties have been reported from the incident.
As of Monday afternoon, exact details of the presumed attack remain unclear, and no parties have assumed responsibility,
Members of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties have been targeted in the Kurdistan Region in the past, with the parties accusing Iran of the killings.
In August, Mousa Babakhani, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I), was found dead in a hotel room in Erbil displaying signs of torture.
Qadir Qadiri, a senior commander of the KDP-I, was found dead in March 2018 in Hartal village, Ranya district, near Sulaimani’s border with Iran. He had been shot 21 times.
Sazmani Khabat is a combatant political organization, one of many groups in the region, and has been fighting to achieve the increased rights of Iranian Kurds for the last 38 years.
