Kein Waffenstillstand für Kurdistan

In Irakisch-Kurdistan, das seit Beginn des US-israelischen Krieges gegen die Islamische Republik Ziel ungezählter Angriffe sowohl aus dem Iran als auch von aus Teheran gesteuerten schiitischer Milizen wurde, gibt es keinen Waffenstillstand. Drohnenangriffe vor allem gegen iranisch-kurdische Parteien und Milizen gehen unvermindert weiter und erneut sind Tote zu beklagen, wie The Amarghi berichtet:

On 14 April, Ghazal Molan Cheparabad, a woman peshmerga of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, was killed in a drone strike on the party’s headquarters in Iraqi Kurdistan. Three days later, on 17 April, two women peshmerga, Nada Miri and Samira Allayari, alongsideShahin Azarbarzin, were killed in another drone attack, accompanied by a missile strike on the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran’s (PDKI) base near Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.. 

Furthermore, these attacks occurred at a time when neither the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) nor the Iranian Kurdish parties were engaged in military operations against the Islamic Republic. Reports by certain international media outlets that Iranian Kurdish forces had crossed into Iranian Kurdistan as part of a coordinated attack by the US and Israel have been categorically rejected by the Iranian Kurdish parties.

Over the course of forty days of war between U.S-Israel and Iran, Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish regions became sites of sustained attacks involving multiple actors. The Kurdistan Region ranks among the six most heavily targeted by Iran and its proxy groups during the war, alongside the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar.

From February 28 until April 15, a total of 703 drones and missiles were launched at Iraqi Kurdistan, resulting in the death of 17 people and injury to 92 others. It is estimated that18% of the total drones and missiles targeted camps belonging to Iranian Kurdish parties, where civilians and families were also present. This includes the killing of six Peshmerga members by an Iranian drone strike on March 24th.

In addition to its cross-border military operations, Iran has significantly increased its internal repression, with reports of arrests of civilians and political activists within Rojhelat. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network has documented patterns of arbitrary detention and crackdowns on Kurdish civil society during periods of heightened military tension.

These are indicative of an external attack being accompanied by internal repression, with the aim of silencing dissent and weakening Kurdish political agency. At the same time, the internet blackout in Iran has passed 1,000 hours, restricting access to information, functioning as an anti-mobilization mechanism, and obstructing the documentation of ongoing state violence in Iranian Kurdistan.