Iranian Kurdish opposition party rules out attacks from Iraqi soil

Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah

The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) will not use Iraqi territory to launch attacks against Iran, spokesperson Khalid Azizi said on Sunday.

In a statement, Azizi noted that the party had informed the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that it would not use the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) as a rear base, stressing that the focus of its activities remains inside Iran.

He added that the PDKI has sought to avoid giving Tehran a pretext to target the KRI or drawing the Kurdistan Region into the conflict with Iran.

In an Aug. 9 interview with Al Jazeera, KRI Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the Kurdistan Region had been subjected to more than 1,000 missile and drone attacks, “either directly from Iran or by militias operating from inside Iraq.” The attacks have included sites belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, which oppose the government in Tehran and have maintained a presence in the KRI since before 1991, with some arriving in Iraq as refugees even earlier.

Read more: Nearly four weeks of attacks on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq