IRBIL: Drone stikes blamed on Iran hit on Tuesday a camp hosting Iranian Kurdish fighters and family members in northern Iraq, a local official and an exiled opposition group said.
Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdish region hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which have repeatedly faced cross-border strikes from Iran.
A local official in the Koysinjaq district, Tareq Al-Haidari, told AFP “three Iranian drones targeted the Azadi camp, which belongs to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the district.”
One drone directly hit the camp’s hospital, wounding one person, said Haidari and a commander from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
PDKI commander Mohammed Nazif Kader told AFP “drones and missiles attacked the camp,” blaming the attack on Iran.
For decades, the Koysinjaq district, known as Koya to Kurds, has been home to the PDKI.
Iran has designated Kurdish opposition groups as terrorist organizations, and has accused them of serving Western or Israeli interests in the past.
These groups have previously fought Iranian security forces in Kurdish-majority areas along the border.
But in recent years, they have largely refrained from armed activity, although they continue to actively campaign from exile against the Islamic republic.
Last week, five groups, including the PDKI, announced a political coalition to seek the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic republic and ultimately to secure Kurdish self-determination.