Iran attacked the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq on Thursday, a day after Iran’s president said in a speech at the UN that Tehran would not bend its knee to the US.
Iran has targeted the Kurdistan Region with more than 1,000 drone and missile attacks since February. It has sought to strike at Kurdish dissident groups as well as US diplomatic facilities and other sites.
Tehran’s goal is to deter Kurdish groups and also send a message that it can strike wherever it wants.
"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired three drones at a village near Soran in Erbil province in the early hours of Thursday, wounding one Peshmerga, two security sources told Rudaw English,” Kurdistan Region-based news channel Rudaw Media Network reported.
“The attack on a location belonging to the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) in the outskirts of Soran came hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held indirect talks with the American negotiators about a possible end to the war,” the report said.
Iran clearly is sending a message that it will continue its attacks even amid negotiations. Tehran may even continue the attacks if there is a deal. It believes it has a right to carry the war into Iraq and terrorize the Kurdistan Region.
Kurds vote for independence in northern Iraq
The attacks took place a day after the anniversary of an independence referendum in the region in 2017. At that time, Kurds went to the polls in northern Iraq and voted for independence. This led to an attack by Iraq on Kirkuk, and Iranian-backed militias attacked Kurds.
“Three drones targeted a location in the village of Dilizian at around 2 a.m. on Thursday, while a KDPI official confirmed the attack, which caused one minor injury to a Peshmerga fighter of the dissident group,” Rudaw Media Network quoted a source as saying. The “drones were fired from the Iranian side near the Haji Omaran border crossing,” the source added.
Meanwhile, the KDPI confirmed that one of its sites had been targeted near Soran. The attack also followed an announcement that the Kurdish Peshmerga, the armed forces of the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, have been unified.
The Kurds want closer security work with Baghdad, and they want air defenses. The problem is that Iran has shown that it continues to influence Iraq and have a free hand in attacks. The attack on September 24 is clearly part of the Iranian message.