Tehran strikes Kurdish opponents in Iraq as protests over Mahsa Amini’s death convulse Iran
Iran ramps up its bombing campaign in northern Iraq in what Iraqi Kurds argue is an attempt to divert the world's attention from the killing of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.
Iran unleashed a wave of missiles and drones on the headquarters of three separate Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan today, killing at least nine people and wounding 32 others, the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Ministry of Health said, adding that it expected the death toll to rise.
The attacks, among the fiercest since Iran resumed its targeting of the Kurdish opposition over the past few days, took place as demonstrations against the beating to death by morality police of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, continued across the country.
Iranian media is blaming the unrest on “outside forces,” namely Israel and Saudi Arabia, saying they are seeking to create an “independent Kurdistan” carved out of Iran, a common trope that is trotted out whenever the regime feels vulnerable.
An estimated 10 million Kurds, mainly Sunnis, who make up around a tenth of Iran’s population have long been denied political and cultural rights. At least 1,500 Kurdish activists were arrested in the last days’ tumult. The Kurdish majority areas in the country’s northwest, alongside Balochistan in the southwest, are among the least developed. The demonstrations over Amini’s murder first erupted in Tehran but rapidly spread to Iranian Kurdistan.
