Shafaq News – Erbil

Iraqi security sources, officials in the Kurdistan Region, and Iranian Kurdish opposition groups dismissed reports of Iranian strikes on the Kurdistan Region on Saturday after several Iraqi and Iranian outlets claimed attacks on border areas and opposition sites.

The sources told Shafaq News that the sounds and explosions heard near parts of the frontier came from live-fire drills conducted by Iranian forces inside their own territory. They said no shells fell inside Iraq, and no casualties or material damage were recorded in the Kurdistan Region.

Arif Bawjany, head of the Iranian opposition Kurdistan Democratic Independence Party (also known as PASOK or P.S.K.), said checks with other opposition groups confirmed that “none of their headquarters had been targeted and that no confrontations took place with Iranian forces.” He noted that Iranian units have been conducting movements and military exercises along the border for the past two days.

Saeed Saleh, a member of the Iranian Kurdistan Communist Association (an opposition group), also confirmed to Shafaq News that the reports were inaccurate, and the sounds heard in parts of the Kurdistan Region came from Iranian military training in Ilam province and were “unrelated to any offensive action.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has previously targeted Iranian Kurdish opposition sites inside the Kurdistan Region. In September 2018, ballistic missiles struck the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and other groups in Koya, causing dozens of casualties.

The IRGC launched further attacks in late September and again in November 2022, hitting positions and camps belonging to parties including PDKI and Komala in areas of Erbil and al-Sulaymaniyah with missiles and drones. Those strikes led to civilian deaths and forced families in nearby villages to flee.