ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Leaders of the Kurdistan Region’s ruling parties on Sunday warned they will no longer tolerate ongoing drone and rocket attacks by Iraq-based pro-Iran militia groups on the Region. They also called on Baghdad to take “serious” steps to stop the assaults, which were triggered by the start of the US-Israel war against Iran.
US and Israel launched a joint aerial campaign against Iran on February 28, killing many of the country’s leaders and commanders, including long-time Spiritual Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, Iran and its proxies in Iraq have carried out drone, rocket and missile attacks against US bases, civilian infrastructure and the positions of the Iranian Kurdish political parties.
Kurdish officials and leaders had largely refrained from making public statements about the war, emphasizing the Kurdistan Region’s neutral position and rejecting any attempt to drag it into the conflict.
However, overnight attacks by these groups in Erbil and Sulaimani provinces that killed two people and wounded several others further angered Kurdish leaders. The targeted sites included a Peshmerga base.
“It is very surprising that some groups and parties, under the name of ‘resistance’ and with baseless excuses and slogans, allow themselves to attack civilian locations, the economic infrastructure of the Kurdistan Region, and Peshmerga bases. This is warmongering and a clear assault on the rights of citizens and on the stability and security of the Kurdistan Region,” President Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and former president of the Kurdistan Region, said in a statement posted by his office on Facebook. The statement followed his attendance at the mourning ceremony of a security member killed during the overnight drone attack on Erbil International Airport.
“Everyone must understand that restraint also has its limits. The Peshmerga have never accepted oppression or aggression from any side. This warmongering and the undermining of the Kurdistan Region’s stability and the security of its citizens by these groups cannot and must not continue,” he warned, calling on the federal government to take “serious action and set clear limits on these violations, because the continuation of such warmongering will have negative consequences.