Iran monitoring Iranian Kurdish party headquarters in Sulaymaniyah with drones: party official

Peregraf

Iran has been flying drones over the Zrgwez area of Sulaymaniyah governorate to perform surveillance of sites belonging to Iranian Kurdish parties, according to an official.

Hassan Rahmanpanah, a member of the Central Committee of the Komala Organization of the Communist Party of Iran (Komala CPI), told Peregraf that the drones were spotted each of the last three days, including on Sunday night.

"The surveillance drones capture images and video footage of the area. However, it is obvious that Peshmerga forces are not based in the areas monitored being by Iranian drones,” Rahmanpanah said, referring to Komala CPI’s fighters.

“On the contrary, they are inhabited by civilians, patients, families, and children. The Peshmerga troops are elsewhere," he said.

Zrgwez is located about 10 kilometers south of Sulaymaniyah city, along the Qaradagh road.

Many of the Iranian Kurdish parties have bases across the border in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, including Komala CPI, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, and the Kurdistan Free Life Party(PJAK).

The Komala CPI official also said Iranian forces continued to engage in cross-border shelling in northern Erbil governorate.

“The bombardments did not cause any casualties, but they damaged the environment of the area and frightened the local people," Rahmanpanah said.

So far, the shelling has been limited to northern Erbilgovernorate.

On Saturday, protesters gathered in Erbil city to voice their anger over the death of Zhina, Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who fell into a coma and died on September 16 after being detained by Iran’s morality police in Tehran. Her family blames the authorities for her death, but they have denied harming her.

The demonstration in the Kurdistan Region’s capital was designed to support ongoing protests across Iran. Protesters in Erbil burned an Iranian flag and attempted to march to the Iranian consulate in the city, but were prevented from doing so by the local security forces.

The same day, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) announced the that it had begun its shelling of sites associated with the Iranian Kurdish opposition parties. It justified the cross-border attacks by saying that its bases in Iran had been attacked in recent days.

The shelling also follows a phone call by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani to Amini’s grieving family on September 18.

The call reportedly angered Iranian officials. Hussein Dalirian, a military analyst and journalist close to the IRGC, tweeted that "Masoud Barzani's action will not go unanswered."