Civilian wounded in rocket attack targeting Kurdistan's Kifri area

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Two Katyusha rockets landed Sunday evening in Kifri district of the Kurdistan Region’s Garmiyan Administration, wounding one civilian, a security source told Kurdistan 24.

One of the shells landed in the “Mam Hamdi” neighborhood of Kifri, and the other near a base of Peshmerga forces, the source said. Security forces have surrounded the struck areas, and a wounded civilian was rushed to a nearby hospital.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Garmiyan Administration is an unofficial province in the Kurdistan Region that includes the three districts of Kalar, Kifri, and Chamchamal, in territory disputed between Baghdad and Erbil. Regional Kurdish Peshmerga and Asayish forces are in charge of security in Garmiyan, while national Iraqi forces control the region to its south and west.

This latest incident marks the second such recent attack targeting the Peshmerga near areas disputed between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government of Iraq.

On March 29, unidentified forces fired at least three rockets that landed near Peshmerga forces stationed along the border separating Kurdistan Region's Erbil province and Iraq's disputed province of Kirkuk.

Read More: Rocket attack targets Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Kirkuk-Erbil border

The attacks came after repeated warnings by the KRG that Islamic State sleeper cells operate in disputed territories with impunity due to what Kurdish officials call a “security vacuum” separating the two sides.

Senior Kurdistan Region officials have long argued that the so-called Islamic State continues to pose a significant threat to the region and the whole of Iraq, and have been urging the international community for further support in the war against terrorism.

Editing by Khrush Najari