Kurdistan President condemns burning of party office in Baghdad, calls for probe

“Attacking the headquarters of a political party, which was a main force in the overthrow of dictatorship in Iraq, is also an attack against the history of the shared struggle of the Kurds and the revolutionary Iraqi forces, who fought jointly against despotism and dictatorship in the past.”

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Saturday condemned the burning of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headquarters in Baghdad by supporters of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), referred to as the Hashd al-Shaabi.

“We condemn this attack and view it as an act of anarchy,” during which “a law-breaking group” burned the KDP office in Baghdad and “the flag of Kurdistan as well as the photos of Kurdish national symbols,” said a statement from the president’s office.

The incident occurred early Saturday when hundreds of marchers carrying flags of the PMF—an umbrella organization of mostly Iran-aligned Shia militias—stormed the main KDP office in the Iraqi capital and burned the building and Kurdistan flags.

Read More: Hashd al-Shaabi supporters burn KDP office, Kurdistan flag in Baghdad

A Kurdistan 24 correspondent at the scene said the security forces that were present did not interfere to stop the attack. A KDP official in the capital said that no members of the party were hurt during the incident. The head of the Baghdad office asserted that they had alerted the federal government of Iraq of repeated threats.

The violence came after senior KDP figure Hoshyar Zebari—also a former Iraqi foreign minister—said that Baghdad must “clean the green zone” from “outlaw forces” within the Hashd al-Shaabi, members of which routinely target with rockets US facilities and interests in Iraq.

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“Attacking the headquarters of a political party, which was a main force in the overthrow of dictatorship in Iraq, is also an attack against the history of the shared struggle of the Kurds and the revolutionary Iraqi forces, who fought jointly against despotism and dictatorship in the past,” President Barzani said.

“The assault is a threat against peaceful coexistence and is an attempt to derail political and social harmony in the country,” he affirmed. “Such behaviors are also against constitutional principles, democratic values, and human rights.”

“We urge all sides to address this incident calmly and with restraint,” Barzani affirmed. “We also urge the relevant institutions of the Federal Government to launch their probes and investigation speedily and seriously, and bring the saboteurs to justice.”

Editing by Khrush Najari