Iran shells Kurdistan Region for second day in row, forcing locals to flee

The Iranian military on Wednesday shelled villages outside the Kurdistan Region’s Haji Omaran district in Erbil province for the second day in a row, forcing the area’s farmers and herdsmen to flee in fear of the strikes, sources told Kurdistan 24.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iranian military on Wednesday shelled villages outside the Kurdistan Region’s Haji Omaran district in Erbil province for the second day in a row, forcing the area’s farmers and herdsmen to flee in fear of the strikes, sources told Kurdistan 24.

For the second day, Iranian artillery targetted Alana village in Haji Omaran’s border town with Iran, a source told Kurdistan 24. On Tuesday, Iran shelled Barda-Soran territory in Haji Omaran.

Read More: Iranian artillery bombs border areas within Kurdistan Region: source

Before the Iranian shelling, a Turkish plane hit a suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) site in the area, Haji Omaran’s mayor told Kurdistan 24. Following the airstrike, the Iranian shelling began “intensively” in the early morning, the source added.

The Iranian attacks have taken a massive toll on the livelihoods of residents in the border areas who are mostly dependent on farming and livestock as their primary source of income. Many locals left their livestock amid the shelling, the source explained.

Those areas and their surroundings have been the target of repeated bombings over the past years with Tehran claiming it is pursuing military bases of the Iranian Kurdish opposition parties.

No causalities have been reported yet, the source noted.  

Kurdistan Region authorities stated on more than one occasion that hundreds of residents from the border villages are displaced as a result of the military operations launched by Turkey and Iran that often result in civilian casualties and property damages.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has called on the Iranian government to put an end to indiscriminate shelling of areas near the Kurdish border in the past and asked Iranian Kurdish fighters to avoid using the region to attack its neighboring state.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany