IRGC-linked factions step up activity against Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Armed factions in Iraq with links to Iran have increased accusations against Kurds in the country’s autonomous region and may have been behind some recent attacks on them.
BAGHDAD — Iran-linked Shiite armed groups operating in Iraq have recently stepped up their messaging against, and possibly attacks on, forces operating in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) amid accusations of their enjoying overly close relations with the United States.
The Iran-linked "muqawama" (resistance) factions are also unhappy about the close ties between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Turkey, in part linked to these factions’ increasingly close relations with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the Sinjar region in northwestern Iraq.
Some attacks on peshmerga forces in recent months may have been conducted by these groups, as Islamic State (IS) attacks on forces operating under the KRG also continue.
Eight Katyusha rockets were fired after 7 p.m. on Jan. 7 at Kurdish peshmerga forces in Pirde near Altun Kupri, a town that lies about 40 kilometers northwest of the city of Kirkuk on the main road between Erbil and Baghdad. The rockets were shot from the eastern and southern sides of their targets.
