UPDATE – Iran’s IRGC launches fresh strikes in Iraq’s Kurdish region

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, CHANGES HEADLINE

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

ERBIL, Iraq / TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Monday it had launched fresh aerial strikes against Kurdish armed groups in northern Iraq.

State media quoted IRGC officials as saying that the “terrorist positions” in northern Iraq were targeted with missile and drone strikes early Monday.

Health authorities in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region earlier said Monday one person was killed and eight others were injured in missile attacks targeting the headquarters of Komala Party and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (IKDP).

Iranian authorities have accused anti-Iran Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq of fomenting unrest in the country in the wake of the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody.

IRGC officials said the target was the “headquarters of terrorist groups” in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, referring to Komala Party and IKDP.

It said the attacks came after “repeated warnings”, adding that the operation will continue “until they (Kurdish groups) stop their movements”.

In September, the IRGC carried out an artillery attack on what it calls the “headquarters of terrorist groups” in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

In a statement at the time, IRGC said its ground forces targeted the positions of Komala, accusing it of smuggling weapons into Iran amid widespread anti-government protests.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told reporters Monday that Iran has emphasized that it “will not be silent” over threats coming from the Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, a senior Iranian military commander said on Sunday that more than 100 members of Komala Party and the Kurdish Democratic Party have been arrested in recent anti-government protests.

He said Iranian authorities seized a “significant amount of ammunition” from these people, describing the northwestern region of the country as “complex and mountainous”.

Iran has been rocked by widespread protests since September triggered by Amini’s death in the custody of morality police following her detention over wearing “inappropriate dress”.

The protests have been largely marred by violence, with Iran blaming Western powers as well as Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq for “fomenting unrest”.

The United States and the European Union have imposed a slew of sanctions on Iranian officials and entities in recent weeks over what they call a “brutal government crackdown” on protests.

*Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report