Rockets hit Iranian Kurdish opposition offices in Iraq’s Koya

Rockets have struck the headquarters of two Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, killing and injuring several people, according to officials and local media.

The missile attack hit the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in the northern town of Koya on Saturday, according to the TV channel Kurdistan 24. 

“Eleven KDPI members were killed and 30 wounded by Katyusha rockets fired on their headquarters,” Kamran Abbas, director of the city’s hospital, told AFP news agency. 

The PDKI, in a Twitter post, blamed Iran for the attack and said an adjacent refugee camp was also hit. 

Photos posted by the PDKI on social media show injured children and massive plumes of smoke in the sky. 

Al Jazeera could not verify the report independently.

In a coordinated attack, the terrorist regime of Iran targeted PDKI’s bases and adjacent refugee camps in Koya, Iraqi Kurdistan. According to initial reports, 35 have been wounded, and 5 others have died.#Pdki #Kurdistan #rojhelat #twitterkurds pic.twitter.com/URqpX5bnwK

— PDKI (@PDKIenglish) September 8, 2018

Video footage of Iran’s use of long-range missiles in attack against PDKI’s bases and adjacent refugee camps in Koya, Iraqi Kurdistan.#PDKI #rojhelat #Kurdistan #twitterkurds pic.twitter.com/uTDm7RK0Av

— PDKI (@PDKIenglish) September 8, 2018

The two groups seek Kurdish autonomy in Iran and operate in exile in neighbouring Iraq.

Kurdistan 24 said the attack occurred as party leaders sat for a meeting and at least two senior officials were injured in the shelling. 

Saturday’s attack was the largest on the party’s headquarters since 1996, the channel said.

Koya, also known as Koysinjaq, is about 60km east of the autonomous Kurdish region’s capital Erbil.

Citing local officials, Rudaw, a Kurdish television channel, said the Koya region “has been under bombardment for days”. 

Also on Saturday, Iran executed three alleged Kurdish separatists, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

One of them, Ramin Hossein Panahi, had planned to bomb a rally in Iran’s Kurdish province last June, Fars said.

Zaniar Moradi and Loghman Moradi were executed for being members of an unnamed “terrorist separatist group” and of killing people, the report added.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Friday they had killed six members of a Kurdish armed group involved in a July attack on an Iranian border post.