BAGHDAD: Iraq summoned the Iranian ambassador on Thursday to deliver a diplomatic complaint following a deadly drone bombing campaign, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Iranian drones targeted an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 32 others. The strikes took place as demonstrations continued to engulf the Islamic Republic after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died while in the custody of the Iranian morality police.
Iran’s attacks targeted positions of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan in the town of Koya, some 65 kilometers (35 miles) east of Irbil, the main city and capital of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The group, known by the acronym KDPI, is a leftist armed opposition force banned in Iran.
The Foreign Ministry said in its statement that civilians were among those killed. It added that the Iraqi government condemned “this crime, which represented the continuation of Iranian forces’ encroachment on Iraq’s sovereignty.”
The ministry also warned of repercussions on “the societal peace of both countries and on regional security and stability.”
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency and broadcaster on Wednesday said the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard targeted bases of a separatist group in the north of Iraq with “precision missiles” and “suicide drones.”
Gen. Hasan Hasanzadeh of the Revolutionary Guard said 185 members of the Basij, a volunteer force, were injured by “machete and knife” in the unrest in Iran. Hasanzadeh also said rioters broke the skull of one Basij member. He added that five Basij members were hospitalized in intensive care.
United Nations’ agencies, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom all condemned the attacks on northern Iraq.
The UN mission in Iraq said in a tweet that the Mideast country cannot be treated as “the region’s ‘backyard,’ where neighbors routinely, and with impunity, violate its sovereignty.”
“Rocket diplomacy is a reckless act with devastating consequences,” the UN mission said.
In Washington, US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel confirmed to reporters that an American citizen was killed in the rocket attacks in the Iraqi Kurdish region. He offered no additional information, citing privacy concerns, and also reiterated the US condemnation of Iran for the attacks.
Protests in Iran have raged following Amini’s death in custody in Tehran, and spread across at least 46 cities, towns and villages across Iran. State TV reported that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the demonstrations began Sept. 17. An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s defense minister said Turkish military jets carried out a new aerial offensive against suspected hideouts of Kurdish separatists from Turkey in northern Iraq, striking as deep as 149 kilometers (87 miles) deep into Iraqi territory.
The jets targeted 16 caves, shelters and command centers allegedly used by Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq’s Asos region on Sept. 27, Hulusi Akar told journalists. He did not provide further details.
The PKK maintains bases across the border in Iraq and has led an armed insurgency inside Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Turkey’s military has over the years launched numerous cross-border offensives in Iraq in pursuit of PKK militants.
Iraq summons Iranian ambassador after drone bombing campaign
https://arab.news/bt3f9
Iraq summons Iranian ambassador after drone bombing campaign
- The Iraqi government condemned "this crime, which represented the continuation of Iranian forces’ encroachment on Iraq’s sovereignty”
- The ministry also warned of repercussions on "the societal peace of both countries and on regional security and stability”
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
