ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iranian border guards captured two fruit and vegetable vendors inside the Iraqi Kurdistan Region on Sunday, according to a local official.
The guards came to the outskirts of the town of Sidakan near the Iran border and took Khalid Hamid and Mohammed Aziz, Sidakan Mayor Ihsan Chalabi told Rudaw.
Iran has increased its surveillance in the border areas recently due to Kurdish opposition groups infiltrating Iran as tensions between Iran and the US rise.
Sidakan, 90 kilometers northeast of Erbil city, is in the mountainous Kelashin Pass that borders Iran to the east and Turkey to the west.
The two merchants drove to the nearby town of Bradost to sell fruits and vegetables to nomads when they were taken, according to Chalabi.
“After they were done, they got close to Iran's Kelashin base to bring back ice," he said. "While doing that, they were taken by four Iranian soldiers."
Chalabi said he is working with KRG and Iraqi officials to free them. He did not reveal if the two detained individuals were suspected of having ties to Kurdish opposition groups known to operate in the area.
Iran has military bases in border areas with the Kurdistan Region as Kurdish armed groups opposed to the Iranian regime, especially the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and Komala parties, are increasing their attacks against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Earlier this month, a young woman was killed and two of her brothers wounded by Iranian artillery shelling near Barbazin heights in Sidakan.
Iran has shelled areas inside the Kurdistan Region on several occasions on the pretext of the presence of armed Kurdish groups on its border. In September 2018, 17 top KDPI party members were killed in Koya after Iran targeted a coordination center for opposition groups in a rare rocket attack.
Turkey also carries out military campaigns in nearby areas of the Kurdistan Region against suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets.
The Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi federal government have repeatedly called on armed groups not to launch attacks against neighboring countries from within Iraqi territory.
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