Family of Iranian Kurd shot in the head in Sulaimani blames Iran
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – After an unknown assailant shot an Iranian Kurdish (Rojhilati) man living in the Kurdistan Region in the head on Tuesday, a member of the victim’s family has accused Tehran of being behind the attack. The gunman's pistol was equipped with a silencer, illegal in the region.
Kurdistan 24 spoke to Samira Shahabi, sister of victim Loghman Shahabi, now in critical condition in Sulaimani Province. She explained that he has been living and working as a police officer in the town of Darbandikhan for the past twelve years.
"His condition stabilized after treatment in the emergency hospital," she said, stressing that "this was an act of terrorism against my brother."
Although Shahabi admitted her brother had remained active within Rojhilat-linked organizations and opposition political groups, she could not specify which ones, or to what extent.
She claimed that the attempt on her brother’s life was strictly a political action and brushed away the possibility of him being involved in any family disputes that could’ve triggered the anger of a relative. Cases involving familial revenge are a common occurrence in the Middle East in general, and violent acts in the Kurdistan Region are often blamed on them.
Fearing Loghman might’ve attracted attention from Iranian authorities, and following multiple phone threats he received, Samira said, "a person came from Iran to carry out the attack" and "an entity in the Kurdistan Region aided the actor."
She asked, "How else could a person have come here with full knowledge of Loghman’s location?" She also brought up the fact that "the attacker possessed a silenced pistol," with the apparent conclusion that such equipment would not be in the hands of a common criminal or embittered family member, but more likely someone connected to a government.
This wouldn’t the first time Iran would be accused of carrying out assassinations in the Kurdistan Region. Qadir Qadiri, a senior Kurdish Peshmerga Commander of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iran (KDP-I) was killed in Sulaimani’s Rania city on Tuesday night.
The KDP-I immediately pointed fingers at the Islamic Regime blaming its agents for carrying out the attack.
Similar fears were expressed in July after the body of Eqbal Moradi, a human rights and political activist, was found in Sulaimani’s bordering town of Penjwen. His son, Zaniyar Moradi, was a political prisoner who was executed on Sep. 8 along with his cousin Loghman and another activist Ramin Hussein Panahi.
On Sept. 8, Iranian rockets targeted the headquarters of the KDP-I and the Democratic Party of the Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), as well as an Iranian Kurdish refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region’s town of Koya. The bombardment killed 14 members from the two parties and injured 40 more, with two other members still missing. The attack received international attention and widespread condemnation.
Editing by John J. Catherine