Iran renews assaults on Iraq’s Kurdistan Region

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraqi Kurdistan — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bombed the Koysinjaq space in each Erbil and Sulaimaniyah provinces on the morning of Nov. 14. At the least 5 rockets hit each side of the border between the 2 provinces, injuring many residents, in response to the native well being authorities. Two deaths have been reported up to now.

IRGC assaults within the Kurdistan Area have develop into frequent up to now few months, because the protests in Iran proceed and the Iranian authorities accused a number of the Kurdish opposition positioned in northern Iraq of being concerned within the protests in Iran.

Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, chief of workers of the Iranian armed forces, stated Oct. 16, “We are going to by no means settle for that 3,000 armed males on the opposite facet of the Iranian border have factories to provide bombs. We are going to keep on with the operations focusing on them, and there might be large-scale operations,” in reference to the Iranian opposition in Iraqi Kurdistan.

On Oct. 12, Saudi Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted sources in Tehran as saying, “The IRGC introduced that its floor models are prepared to hold out restricted operations focusing on the websites of the opposition Komala celebration and the Kurdistan Democratic Occasion [KDP].”

This isn’t the primary time that Iran threatens to invade Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2016 and 2021, it threatened to invade the Kurdistan Area, which borders Iran by way of town of Sulaimaniyah. The latter is managed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Bafel Talabani, son of former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

In an interview with the official web site of Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — khamenei.ir — on Nov. 10, Iranian Minister of Intelligence Esmail Khatib accused overseas actors together with the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and a number of other different regional events of being concerned in Iran’s ongoing “riot.”

On Sept. 1, Irfaasawtak information web site quoted Khaled Wanosheh, a number one determine within the opposition KDP, as saying, “The IRGC continues to mobilize troopers, tanks, heavy artillery and all types of weapons and tools, within the heights stretching between [the border areas of] Bradost and Qilsheen, in addition to different components overlooking the villages in Seidkan district, as much as the heights going through Mount Halgurd [that is also on the border with Iran].”

In an Emirates Coverage Middle’s examine revealed Might 11, Iraqi researcher Diyari Salih wrote, “It isn’t unlikely for the IRGC to hold out a navy invasion of some border areas in Erbil governorate underneath the pretext of undermining sources of risk to Iran’s [national] safety. Even though the Iranian opposition, which is current in some components of Erbil, has not represented up to now any critical risk to Iran’s nationwide safety.”

Iran adopted in Turkey’s footsteps within the navy assaults focusing on the Kurdistan Area. Iraq’s two neighboring international locations justified their assaults as a result of presence of Iranian and Turkish opposition events. 

The safety state of affairs within the Kurdistan Area has been unstable for weeks as a result of ongoing Iranian and Turkish assaults. This is able to worsen if Iran follows Turkey’s footsteps in working floor assaults, too. 

Nonetheless, Jabbar Yawar, a retired lieutenant basic and former spokesperson for the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs within the Kurdistan Regional Authorities, informed Al-Monitor, “There aren’t any indicators indicating that the IRGC will begin a floor assault on the Kurdistan Area.”

He famous, “The obtainable info doesn’t level to the opportunity of any assault, nor to a large-scale navy build-up of the IRGC on the border. Up to now, there has not been any makes an attempt to launch a floor assault.”

Yawar spoke of a lack of expertise at current about Iran’s intention to launch navy floor assaults on the Kurdistan Area, however he didn’t deny the presence of an Iranian plan or concept to assault the area and enter its territory, because the Turkish forces did up to now 5 years.

Human Rights Watch spoke to native residents and witnesses in Iraqi Kurdistan in regards to the latest Iranian bombardments of the villages and cities up to now weeks. “A number of the assaults by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on Iranian opposition celebration places of work within the Kurdistan Area of Iraq struck cities and villages the place the events weren’t finishing up any navy exercise,” in response to native residents.

The continual missile assaults by the IRGC from Iran towards Iraqi Kurdistan has raised concern among the many locals that they might flip right into a navy floor assault just like the Turkish incursion into Iraqi territory. 

Iran is seemingly looking for to have official forces in Iraqi territory, as Turkey did in Ninevah and in different components of Iraqi Kurdistan. That is linked to different recordsdata, together with a warfare in opposition to Iran’s opposition inside Iraqi territory and the stress on the Kurdistan Area following the fuel gross sales to Turkey, which has induced the Kurdish fuel to compete with the Iranian fuel marketed to Turkey.

In conclusion, the large-scale Turkish incursion into northern Iraq has motivated Iran to hunt geographical affect within the Kurdistan Area, significantly because it has the pretext that will justify its motion, together with the presence of Iranian opposition events or the so-called “Israeli spying headquarters.”