Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has again targeted a base of a "separatist terrorist " group in Iraq’s semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, Iranian media report.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency said a base of the Free Kurdistan Party located near the city of Kirkuk was “targeted by missiles and kamikaze drones” on November 22.
The reported air strikes came a day after Iran's forces fired on the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in the region. At least one person was reported killed in this attack.
"Iran has acted to protect its borders and the security of its citizens, based on its legal rights,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told reporters.
Iran stepped up attacks on exiled Kurdish opposition groups in northern Iraq in September, with the IRGC accusing them of "attacking and infiltrating Iran to sow insecurity and riots and spread unrest" amid nationwide protests. The Kurdish groups deny the Iranian allegations.
Iran has been gripped by anti-government demonstrations since the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of Tehran’s morality police. The unrest triggered a heavy-handed crackdown by security forces in which more than 378 people were killed, including dozens of children, according to one human rights group. Thousands of people have also been arrested. Five people have so far been sentenced to death over the protests.
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