Iranian artillery bombed Kurdish militants in northern Iraq on Monday, injuring at least three people and forcing hundreds to flee their homes, Kurdish officials told VOA.
The cross-border shelling in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Haji Omaran region targeted positions of Iranian Kurdish rebel groups Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) and Komala, Kurdish officials said.
“The shelling started at 5 a.m. [local time] and continued for several hours, forcing hundreds of civilians from nearby villages to flee their homes,” Farzang Ahmad, the local administrator of the Haji Omaran sub-district in Iraqi Kurdistan, told VOA.
Ahmad added that one villager and two rebels were injured and many local farmers’ livelihoods were destroyed as a result of the shelling.
“The Republic of Iran’s justification for the attack is the presence of Iranian Kurdish rebels in the border region with Iraq,” he said.
Iran is home to roughly 10 million Kurds who mostly live in the northwest of the country, close to Iraqi and Turkish Kurdish communities across the border.