Shafaq News- Erbil

A senior Kurdish official on Saturday warned Baghdad of “potential international legal consequences” over what he described as its failure to curb repeated attacks by armed groups targeting the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

In posts on X, Dindar Zebari, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Coordinator for International Advocacy, argued that Iraq is bound by obligations under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and broader legal frameworks to protect the KRI from armed activity outside state control, pointing to international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as the basis for these responsibilities.

Zebari urged the federal government to safeguard the right to life and personal security and prevent attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure, including those carried out by non-state actors. Continued incidents, he cautioned, threaten stability and require a response aligned with the principle of due diligence, which obliges states to prevent violations, investigate them, and ensure accountability.

Failure to act or prosecute those responsible could expose Iraq to legal liability, including independent investigations and judicial proceedings under national and international law, Zebari added, noting that the UPR framework requires effective remedies for victims, including compensation, rehabilitation, legal redress, and guarantees of non-repetition.

He stressed the need for stronger coordination between Baghdad and Erbil to protect civilians and prevent Iraqi territory from being used for unlawful armed activity.

Since Feb. 28, when US and Israeli strikes targeted Iran, the KRI has faced a wave of incidents affecting diplomatic facilities, sites linked to Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, Peshmerga-affiliated positions, oil fields, communication networks, residential areas, and public infrastructure. The US-based Community Peacemaker Teams documented 474 cases, including 179 attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and 295 to Iran-aligned groups, resulting in at least 14 deaths and 93 injuries.

Erbil alone has recorded more than 500 drone incidents since tensions escalated, according to Governor Omed Khoshnaw.

Read more: Multiple actors, one battlefield: Iraq since the US-Israel-Iran war began