Foreword
Over the past two months, coinciding first with the US–Israeli–Iranian war and then continuing throughout a ceasefire that has now been in place for more than a month, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxy forces in Iraq have launched a sweeping wave of missile and drone strikes against the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The bulk of these attacks, carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have targeted the camps and headquarters of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties and refugee/asylum-seeker camps in the governorates of Sulaymaniyah and Erbil.
These camps serve not only as bases for party members but as homes for their families, many of whom hold refugee status under the Geneva Conventions and have been recognised as asylum seekers or refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They also house educational and medical facilities for residents, a considerable number of which have been damaged or entirely destroyed as a result of the attacks.
Such strikes are by no means new. They recurred repeatedly in previous years, including in 2022 during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising. Since the outbreak of the recent war, however, their scale, intensity and frequency have increased dramatically. Dozens of people have been killed or wounded, and hundreds more have been forced to flee their homes and relocate.
Background
Iranian Kurdish opposition parties, which withdrew from various parts of Iranian Kurdistan to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the late 1980s following intensifying military and security pressure from the Islamic Republic, have remained targets of Iranian cross-border operations and military strikes for more than three decades, despite the parties largely refraining from large-scale armed conflict with the Islamic Republic. These operations have encompassed a broad range of methods: assassinations, abductions, bombings, artillery shelling, air strikes, missile attacks and drone strikes.
According to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre, at least 380 assassinations and abductions of members and cadres of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties by the Islamic Republic’s extraterritorial forces in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq were documented in the 1990s alone.
In the past decades, the IRGC’s Ramazan Headquarters and the extraterritorial units of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence deployed a range of security and military methods against Kurdish party members and cadres. Artillery bombardment and aerial bombing of camps and party headquarters subsequently became a fixture of the Islamic Republic’s strategy. In 1994 and 1996, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s (PDKI) camps in the Dasht-e Koya area of Erbil governorate were bombed by Islamic Republic Air Force jets and shelled by IRGC forces.
During this period, the Kurdish parties – the PDKI and Komala Kurdistan’s Organisation of the Communist Party of Iran – had largely suspended their armed struggle and were operating from camps and bases in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil governorates. Iran’s assassinations and security operations against them nonetheless continued. In 2011, IRGC forces attacked the mountainous Qandil region on the tri-border strip between Iraq, Iran and Turkey – then under the control of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) – and a number of villages in the Kurdistan Region in that area were shelled.
A new phase of Islamic Republic attacks on Kurdish parties began in 2017 with a missile strike on the headquarters of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) – attacks that in subsequent years escalated further with the widespread use of armed and kamikaze drones. Since that point, camps, headquarters and bases affiliated with Iranian Kurdish parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have been struck repeatedly by IRGC missiles, drones and rockets.
Following the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising in 2022 and the widespread protests that swept cities across Iranian Kurdistan, pressure on the Kurdish opposition parties entered a new phase. In March 2023, an agreement was signed between the Iraqi federal government and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although the precise terms of the agreement have not been made public, reports from Kurdistan Region media indicate that its main provisions included the disarmament of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties and increased pressure on political asylum seekers and refugees in the Kurdistan Region.
In pursuance of this agreement, a camp was established in the Surdash area of Sulaymaniyah governorate, under the supervision of the Kurdistan Regional Government and with the consent of the Iraqi federal government, to accommodate part of the families of members of the three Komala factions, and these families were resettled there. In 2025, a further number of families were transferred to the camp. Following the outbreak of the recent war, however, the homes of the asylum seekers and refugees living in the camp were repeatedly struck by Islamic Republic missiles and drones.
Current situation
According to data compiled by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), since 2017, a total of 43 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in IRGC missile and drone strikes on the camps and headquarters of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Following the outbreak of the US–Israeli–Iranian war on 28 February 2026, Iran’s attacks on the Kurdistan Region entered a far more intensive phase and have continued despite the ceasefire declared by the conflicting parties.
Despite repeated calls by Kurdish parties for international protection of civilian camps and the homes of families and refugees, the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Iraqi federal government, the United Nations and other international bodies have taken no meaningful practical steps to halt the ongoing attacks.
In a statement dated 30 April 2026, the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan declared that the Islamic Republic had violated Iraqi sovereignty more than 700 times since the start of this phase of the conflict, subjecting the Kurdistan Region to sustained military attack. According to the statement, more than 150 direct strikes had been carried out against the camps of Iranian Kurdish political refugees, killing at least 21 people, 10 of whom were members and fighters of the parties comprising the coalition.
The coalition also described the targeting of consulates, political camps and civilian residential areas in the Kurdistan Region as a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime, calling on governments, the United Nations and international organisations to adopt a firm, responsible and deterrent stance in response.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Media and Information likewise issued a statement on 25 April 2026, reporting that between the outbreak of the US–Israeli war with Iran on 28 February and 20 April 2026, the Kurdistan Region had been struck 809 times, resulting in 20 deaths and 123 injuries, with hundreds of residents suffering damage to their property, homes, workplaces and vehicles. The statement noted that the Kurdistan Region ranked first among areas that had sustained the heaviest human and material losses despite having no part in the war.
These attacks have not been confined to the headquarters and camps of Kurdish opposition parties; a number of military and administrative installations and even civilian residential areas in the Kurdistan Region have also been struck by missiles and drones. Eight peshmerga and two civilians were killed in Erbil governorate as a result of these strikes.
Despite the fact that the Kurdish opposition parties have refrained from any military action against the Islamic Republic throughout this period, the attacks have continued. The Islamic Republic’s consul in Sulaymaniyah has publicly defended the strikes in recent weeks.
Attacks and casualties
The new phase of IRGC missile and drone attacks began on 2 February 2018 with a three-missile strike on the Pakshar base belonging to the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK).
On 8 September 2018, the political bureau headquarters of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan was struck simultaneously by IRGC missiles and aircraft while the party’s Central Committee plenum was in session. Fourteen party members and cadres were killed in the attack: Karim Mahdavi, Ebrahim Ebrahimi, Nasrin Haddad and Rahman Pirouti (members of the Central Committee); Soheyla Ghaderi and Hashem Azizi (alternate members of the Central Committee); Osman Osmani; Karim Rasoulzadeh (Mam Sherko); Hawreh Karsaz (Hawreh Sheikhani); Peshawa Seyyed Omar; Jamal Akbari; Mansour Akbarpour; Mohammad Hassanpour; and Ghader Ezzati.
Simultaneously, in a separate strike on the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, two party members, Farough Hassan Khayyat and Mokhtar Ghaderpour, were also killed.
It should be noted that at the time, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Democratic Party of Kurdistan were operating as two distinct organisations under two separate names; they subsequently reunited and have since continued their activities under the original name, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
On 28 September 2022, a series of large-scale attacks using drones and long-range weapons was carried out against PDKI’s political bureau headquarters and the family camp associated with the party. Eight people were killed in the course of these strikes: Omar Mahmoudzadeh, Hajar Zargheh, Osman Feyzi, Mohammad Khalili, Reyhaneh Kanani, Vanyar Rahmani (an infant), Milad Pir-Saheb and Shirko Bartani.
Simultaneously, PAK bases were struck in a large-scale barrage of 18 missiles and 10 drones, killing nine party members and wounding 26 others. The dead were: Ehsan Faraji, Omid Nikdel, Younes Ghiasi, Arvin Sohrabi, Yadollah Nouri-Sabet, Saeid Omidi, Edris Amjadi, Kamran Rostami and Sasan Shariati.
On 21 January 2026, following three drone strikes on PAK headquarters, a party member, Mozaffar Mohammadzadeh was killed and one other person wounded.
On 5 March 2026, Jalal Rashidi, known by his organisational name “Kawan”, a PAK member, was killed in an IRGC drone strike on the Dagleh area east of Erbil.
On 7 March 2026, Esmaeil Rahimi (Ako) was killed in IRGC missile strikes on the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan camp in the Zargwezela area of Sulaymaniyah governorate. One other party member was wounded in the attack.
On 11 March 2026, Omid Veysi was killed in IRGC drone strikes on the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan camp in the Zargwezela area of Sulaymaniyah governorate. Two other party members were wounded.
On 13 March 2026, a base belonging to the Khabat Organisation of Iranian Kurdistan in the Bashiqa heights was struck by a drone attack, killing two party members, Eghbal Salehi and Fakhreddin Moradi, and wounding four others.
On 14 April 2026, the Surdash camp in Sulaymaniyah governorate, belonging to the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan, was struck at least eight times by drone and quadcopter attacks. One party member, Ghazal Molan, was killed and two others wounded.
On 17 April 2026, Islamic Republic of Iran drone strikes on PDKI camps in Erbil governorate killed two party members, Neda Miri and Samira Allah-Yari, along with Shahin Azarbarzin, the son of a party member. Two other members were also wounded.
Call for immediate action
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran’s missile and drone attacks on the camps and settlements of Iranian Kurdish political asylum seekers, refugees and opposition party members in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, calls on responsible domestic and international bodies to take immediate and effective steps to bring these attacks to an end and to protect civilians. To that end, the organisation puts forward the following recommendations:
— The Islamic Republic of Iran must immediately cease its missile and drone strikes and all military operations against camps, settlements and civilian residential areas in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and must honour its obligations under international humanitarian law and the United Nations Charter.
— The Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government must accept their responsibility to protect the lives and security of political asylum seekers, refugees and residents of these camps, and must take concrete and urgent measures to prevent a recurrence of these attacks.
— The United Nations, in particular UNHCR and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), must continuously monitor the security situation in the camps and places of residence of Iranian Kurdish political asylum seekers and refugees, and must establish effective mechanisms for the protection of civilians.
— The UN Human Rights Council and the relevant Special Rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, must examine these attacks as serious violations of international law and conduct independent investigations into their impact on civilians and refugees.
— The international community and governments with political and economic ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran must use diplomatic and legal instruments to press the Islamic Republic to halt these attacks and respect the rights of civilians.
— All attacks on civilian areas, refugee camps, and medical and educational facilities must be independently, transparently and impartially documented and investigated, and those who ordered and carried out these attacks must be held accountable through international mechanisms.
— International bodies and humanitarian organisations must provide the necessary humanitarian, medical and psychological support to affected families, the wounded and those displaced as a result of these attacks.
Sources:
1. Assassination and abduction of at least 540 Iranians by the Islamic Republic abroad
2. Coalition of Political Parties of Iranian Kurdistan: Tehran’s attacks are a war crime and a fight for survival
3. Kurdistan Regional Government: 809 attacks carried out against the Kurdistan Region, 20 killed and 123 wounded
