ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian ballistic missile strike on a peshmerga base in Erbil province killed six fighters and injured 30 others early Tuesday, the Peshmerga Ministry said, following days of missile and drone strikes on the peshmerga forces.
The Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry said in a statement that the casualties and injuries resulted from “Iranian ballistic missiles” hitting its Area Command One headquarters in Erbil province’s Soran administration.
The Kurdistan Region has faced a wave of drone and missile attacks since the conflict began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched a joint military campaign against Iran. Iraqi armed groups aligned with Iran have claimed responsibility for some of the attacks.
Rudaw understands that Iraqi outlawed armed groups have carried out more than 10 attacks on Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga forces over the past three weeks, but this is the first attack on the Region’s forces that authorities have attributed directly to Iran.
“We condemn in the strongest terms this attack and all other terrorist attacks carried out against the Kurdistan Region,” the ministry said. “We reaffirm that we have every right to confront any aggression against our people and our land.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has adopted a policy of strict neutrality, positioning itself as a “factor of peace,” with its leaders repeatedly calling for dialogue and insisting that it will not allow its territory to be used to threaten its neighbors.
Amid early March reports that the CIA or Israel might use Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region to spark unrest in Iran, the KRG rejected the claims. Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s chief of staff, Aziz Ahmed, said at the time that “not a single Iraqi Kurd has crossed the border.”
“We call on all sides to keep war and conflict away from the Kurdistan Region, and we also call on the federal government, the international community, and all our friends not to remain silent in the face of these violations and to set a limit to this brazen aggression,” the Peshmerga Ministry said in its Tuesday statement.
The ministry extended condolences to the families of those killed and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded. “We never expected the Kurdistan Region's peaceful stance to be answered in such a cowardly manner,” it added.
The Peshmerga Ministry on Sunday called on the federal government in Baghdad to rein in outlawed armed groups that have launched attacks on its forces.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told Rudaw in an interview on Sunday that Baghdad has been unable to curb pro-Iran armed groups carrying out attacks inside the country, citing their military and political influence. “They also have power; they have military power, organizational power, and parliamentary power,” he said.
Iran is believed to maintain influence over several armed groups in Iraq, many of which operate under the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and have political representation within the government and parliament.