Iran continues attacks on Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq

On September 7, Iran launched a drone targeting the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan party in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, the latest attack on the region and the latest against Kurdish Iranian opposition groups. Iran and its militia proxies in Iraq have carried out more than 1,000 drone and missile attacks on the Kurdistan Region. The attack comes as Iraq continues to discuss how to disarm Iranian-backed militias in the country.

The September 7 attack occurred at 4:50 am, according to Amjad Hussein Panahi, a Komala official. Three Iranian drones targeted one of the group’s camps in the Surdash area of Sulaymaniyah Governorate, around 16 miles from the Iranian border. Other Kurdish Iranian opposition groups are located in nearby Koya, about 30 miles from the border.

Komala is one of five Kurdish Iranian opposition parties that formed a coalition in February to oppose the Iranian regime. Komala has three branches, due to an internal split over ideology, and two are members of the coalition. The group’s facilities in northern Iraq have been targeted numerous times since US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran began in late February.

“According to Komala statistics, since the outbreak of the conflict between Iran and the United States to date, the number of missiles and drones used to target Komala’s headquarters and camps has exceeded 108,” Panahi told the local Rudaw Media Network on September 7. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, another opposition group, said on September 2 that it had been targeted a total of 155 times since February. More than 30 people have been killed in the attacks.

The attack on September 7 did not harm anyone, according to the Rudaw report. However, it did damage the site, and flames were seen rising from one of the buildings.

The latest Iranian attacks come as the US is withdrawing forces from Iraq, a shift that includes reports that the US has moved air defenses from the Kurdistan Region. Qasim al Araji, national security advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al Zaidi, said that the US withdrawal will include all defense systems, Rudaw reported.

“On September 30, coalition [against the Islamic State] forces will completely withdraw from Iraq, and this is the implementation of the agreement made between the previous government and the global coalition,” Araji said.

Regional media are spotlighting the US withdrawal. “US air-defence exit from Iraq risks creating wider regional security gap,” The National in the UAE noted. The New Arab also reported on Araji’s comments, noting, “He said the withdrawal would include all coalition air defence systems deployed in the Kurdistan Region, adding that the phased removal of troops and equipment had already begun.”

These shifts come as Iraq continues to discuss disarming Iranian-backed militias. Iraq’s Shiite Coordination Framework, the dominant alliance of Shiite political parties, has adopted a plan to move forward. “A senior alliance official told Rudaw that a Coordination Framework committee is in direct talks with Iran-aligned factions that have so far refused to disarm,” the network reported.

One of the factions that has refused outright disarmament is Kataib Sayyid al Shuhada, a US-designated terrorist group, which has placed conditions on placing its weapons under state control.

“Iraqi armed factions view bringing weapons under state control as inseparable from achieving full national sovereignty, Kazem al-Fartousi, spokesman for Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, told Shafaq News, describing September 30 as a test of the United States and the US-led international coalition’s commitment to their obligations to the Iraqi government,” Shafaq News reported on September 8.

Despite US pressure, it does not appear that Baghdad is ready to confront the militias. “Iraq’s State Administration Coalition, which brings together Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish forces, sidestepped the issue of bringing weapons under state control while warning of the potential repercussions for Iraq from US sanctions on Iran,” the London-based Asharq al Awsat noted on September 7.

Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDD’s Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel’s Battle for Security in Gaza (2024).