Two weeks of attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan
Shafaq News- Erbil/ Al-Sulaymaniyah
Two weeks after drone and missile attacks began targeting Iraq's Kurdistan Region, no party has directly claimed responsibility for the campaign, and two Iraqi armed factions named in connection with it have denied any role. The attacks have killed at least nine people and wounded six others, all of them members of Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties.
The Kurdistan Region is a semi-autonomous, Kurdish-governed area of northern Iraq administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Its main cities, Erbil and Al-Sulaymaniyah, host bases of Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties and sites linked to the United States, including a US consulate in Erbil.
An Unclaimed Campaign
No individual, group, or state has issued a formal claim of responsibility for the wave of strikes over the two-week period. The silence is unusual for a sustained campaign of this scale, and it has left the attacks attributed by inference and accusation rather than by acknowledgment.
Where responsibility has been assigned, it has come from the targets and from Kurdish authorities. Kurdistan security sources and several targeted parties attributed some of the missile strikes to Iran. The KRG and main Kurdish parties blamed Iran directly and called on Tehran to halt the attacks. Iran has neither confirmed nor denied launching the campaign, though its army claimed on July 25 to have destroyed most United States infrastructure in Erbil.
Read more:Who is striking Iraqi Kurdistan? New drones deepen an unanswered question
The Casualties And The Sites Hit
The confirmed toll falls entirely on Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups. On July 17, missile strikes hit the Komala party at Zargwez near Al-Sulaymaniyah, killing nine opposition fighters. On July 22, an attack on a Kurdistan Freedom Party headquarters wounded six of its members.
The strikes were divided along two target lines over the two weeks: bases of Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties in Al-Sulaymaniyah and western Erbil, and US-linked sites around Erbil. Air defenses associated with the US consulate intercepted drones over Erbil on multiple occasions between July 17 and 25, according to Global Coalition and Kurdistan security statements, with effects there limited to falling debris and small vegetation fires. Erbil International Airport stayed open throughout.
The Denials
Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, denied on July 17 that any attack had originated on Iraqi territory. Spokesperson Kazem al-Fartousi told Shafaq News: "There were no operations launched from Iraq toward Erbil, and no resistance faction carried out any action of this kind."
Saraya Awliya al-Dam, a second faction, rejected on July 25 reports linking it to the Erbil attacks, calling them false and meant to sow confusion, according to military spokesperson Abu Mahdi al-Jaafari.
Iran has not directly addressed whether it is behind the campaign. Its army claimed to have destroyed most US infrastructure in Erbil, but no statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or the Iranian army has said that Iran carried out the attacks on the Kurdistan Region. Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), attributed a blaze in al-Sulaymaniyah to projectiles fired from Iran.
The attacks had continued for two weeks as of the latest reported strike on July 25.
