ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Altercations broke out in Sulaimani’s Zirgwez region on Thursday between two divided factions of the Komala party, a leftist Kurdish opposition group from Iran, in which at least two fighters have been killed. The skirmish comes a day after one of the factions announced the end of the unification process.
The Komala of Revolutionary Toilers of Iranian Kurdistan (Shorshger) and the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan (Zahmatkeshan) said they were reuniting their forces in November after separating over 15 years before.
The unification process was called off by Zahmatkeshan on Wednesday, citing unimplemented agreements and political disagreements, also accusing Shorshger of following policies that were not in favor of the general interests of the Kurdish people.
A Shorshger official told Rudaw that most of the Zahmatakeshan members have not backed down from the unification and still support continuing with the process.
Later in the day, Shorshger claimed that Zahmatkeshan fighters had surrounded the house of the former’s deputy leader Omar Ilkhanizadeh, and that the situation had only calmed down once local security forces intervened. Zahmatkeshan denied the claims.
Amjad Hussein Panahi, a commander of the Zahmatkeshan forces, told Rudaw that Ilkhanizadeh had been the one who attempted to attack their camp, and that there was no legitimacy to the claims that his house had been surrounded.
The two sides clashed in the party’s base in Zirgwez on Thursday morning. Zahmatkeshan claimed that their camp had been targeted by Shorshger snipers killing two of their fighters, Saman Ibrahimi and Hiwa Sadeghi.
“We tried to prevent this from happening, but they [Shorshger] will commit any act and crime to compensate for their failures,” read a statement from the Zahmakteshan central committee, accusing Ilkhanizadeh of having yelled “let blood be spilled” after the unification was called off.
Panahi claimed that, despite the casualties they had suffered, their forces had not fired any bullets with the intention to kill.
In response, Shorshger released a statement saying that the reason for the clash was that Zahmatkeshan fighters had once again attacked the house of Ilkhanizadeh, which is located inside Shorshger’s camp. The statement added that shots were fired for a period of one hour, but did not report any casualties.
Komala is a leftist Kurdish armed opposition party based in the Kurdistan Region and fighting for the rights of Kurds in Iran. The party is divided into at least three branches and their names are very similar, making it difficult at times to distinguish between them.
