Despite a 40-day war and a ceasefire between Iran, the United States, and Israel, Iranian drone attacks on Kurdish parties in Iraqi Kurdistan continue.
While Iran, the United States, and Israel are experiencing a period of ceasefire after a 40-day war, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s drone attacks on the positions of Kurdish parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq continue. One of the latest of these attacks took place on the afternoon of April 14, 2026, and led to the death of one peshmerga and the injury of two others.
According to reports, Ghazal Molan Chaparabad, a 19-year-old peshmerga affiliated with the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan and originally from Mahabad, was killed as a result of this attack. Local sources say that after being transferred to several medical centers in Sulaymaniyah, she died before receiving effective treatment because she was not admitted and because of inadequate medical facilities.
This attack took place while the ceasefire between Iran and the United States-Israel had entered its second week. Yet according to local sources and political activists, the Islamic Republic’s attacks on the positions of Iranian Kurdish parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have not only failed to stop, but in some cases have even intensified.
According to Kurdish sources, since the start of the recent conflict, more than 700 missile and drone attacks have been recorded against the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with headquarters and refugee camps among the main targets. As a result of these attacks, at least 18 people have been killed and 93 wounded.
In an account published in the name of Amjad Hossein Panahi, a member of the central committee of the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan, the process of transferring Ghazal Molan to medical centers is described as delayed and obstructed by serious obstacles. It is said that the ambulance carrying her went to several hospitals, but she was refused admission because of the “political dimensions of the case” or because of a “lack of specialist facilities.” In the end, the young peshmerga died on the way to hospital before receiving vital medical care.
In a statement, the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan described the attack as “terrorist” and declared that the aim of these actions is to suppress opposition forces and spread fear throughout Kurdish society.
In this context, Hiwa Majidzadeh, a Kurdish political activist living in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in the city of Sulaymaniyah, offers Radio Zamaneh a broader picture of the background and logic of these attacks; a picture that shows that what is happening today is not a temporary phenomenon, but the continuation of a process that has been unfolding for years.
A Permanent State of Attack Since Woman, Life, Freedom
According to him, since the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising in 2022, which was rooted especially in the cities of Kurdistan, the parties of Iranian Kurdistan have been continuously targeted by the Islamic Republic’s drone and missile attacks. Over the past years, these attacks have not only failed to stop, but have gradually intensified, producing a permanent state of alert among these parties. Majidzadeh emphasizes that during this period, the political and military structures of these parties have been forced to adapt themselves to conditions in which they can be targeted at any moment.
As Majidzadeh notes:
“The parties of East Kurdistan, the parties of Iranian Kurdistan, have been attacked hundreds of times by the drone and missile assaults of the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran since the revolutionary Woman, Life, Freedom uprising up to today. Since then, these parties have remained in a permanent state of emergency and warning, and over these past few years the pressure on them from the Islamic Republic has only grown.”
Referring to the recent war between Iran and the United States-Israel, he explains that from the very first days, the Islamic Republic concentrated on creating an atmosphere of fear in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and, alongside that, pursued attacks on Kurdish parties as part of its policy. According to him, these parties in response raised their level of alert and evacuated many of their headquarters and camps in order to protect their members and families. Yet even these preventive measures have not stopped the continuation of the attacks. As he explains:
“These missile and drone assaults by the regime of the Islamic Republic have so far led to the killing of at least six peshmerga. Two of them were Omid Veysi and Esmail Rahimi from the Revolutionary Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan, two others were Fakhraddin Moradi and Eqbal Salehpour from the Khabat Organization of Kurdistan, one was Jalal Rashidi from the Free Kurdistan Party, known as PAK, and the latest case was Ghazal Molan from the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan, who was killed as a result of the savage assault by the regime of the Islamic Republic on the Surdash camp, which is entirely a civilian camp and far removed from political and military activity. In these attacks so far, more than thirty people have also been wounded. These attacks have also targeted the camps and headquarters of the Democratic Party of Iran, though fortunately no one in that party has been harmed.”
The Surdash camp, targeted by Islamic Republic drones, was fundamentally a non-military camp and a site where families were living, designated on the basis of security agreements between the Iraqi government and Iran. According to Majidzadeh, targeting such a place shows that these attacks are not merely military in nature, but part of a broader policy aimed at weakening and eliminating these parties and breaking their connection to their society.
Not a Party to This War
Majidzadeh then emphasizes a key point: according to him, the parties of Iranian Kurdistan do not fundamentally consider themselves part of the war between the Islamic Republic and the United States-Israel, and from the very beginning they stated this position clearly. He describes this distinction as “fundamental” and says that the struggle of these parties has a long history and a different character, one tied to social and political demands inside Iran, especially in Kurdistan. In his view, it is precisely this deep connection to Kurdish society that makes the Islamic Republic sensitive and anxious toward these parties and turns the continuous attacks into a tool for exerting pressure and producing fear.
Hiwa Majidzadeh says:
“From the very first days, the political leaders of these parties stated clearly, in relation to this war and its sides, that they were not and are not part of it. The struggle of these parties against the regime of the Islamic Republic began from the very first days of this regime, and the nature of their struggle differs fundamentally from the nature of this war. In reality, each of the parties of Kurdistan represents a part of the society of Iranian Kurdistan and represents the demands of the people of Kurdistan, and they have a deep connection with their own people. In fact, the assault and attack—or more precisely, the fear and terror—of the Islamic Republic toward these parties stems from exactly this point. In reality, through these attacks the Islamic Republic wants to project its own fear and terror into the hearts of the people of Kurdistan, though this has always produced the opposite result and has made the people of Kurdistan and their parties more determined.”
The Islamic Republic’s War Propaganda Against Kurdish Parties
In another part of the interview, Majidzadeh also points to the propaganda and discursive dimension of this confrontation. He says that over the decades the Islamic Republic has portrayed these parties with labels such as “splinter group” or “separatist,” while at the same time trying, by pressuring the Iraqi government, to create the conditions for transferring them to third countries. In his view, such a policy is ultimately pursued in order to sever these forces from their social ground, a goal which, he says, has so far not been achieved.
Majidzadeh told Zamaneh:
“The aim of the regime of the Islamic Republic is to destroy these parties and in reality to silence the demands of Kurdish society in Iran. In recent years especially, the regime has made every effort, through officials of the Iraqi government, to expel these parties from the geography of Iraq and transfer them to a third country. The goal the regime pursues through this strategy is in reality to cut the organic bond that the parties of Kurdistan have with the people of their society, so that they become ineffective in relation to the social and political developments of Kurdistan. This is something the regime has not achieved so far, and I do not think it will.”
The Need for International Pressure
At the end, Majidzadeh emphasizes the role of civil and political forces outside Iran and believes that under the present conditions these forces can, by taking a clear position against the war while at the same time condemning the attacks on the Kurdistan Region, draw the attention of international institutions to this issue. In his view, what is happening in these areas is not merely a marginal conflict, but part of a broader process of repression whose consequences will extend beyond the geography of Kurdistan.
Hiwa Majidzadeh says:
“Progressive, freedom-seeking, leftist, and socialist organizations, just as they chose the third way in this reactionary war imposed on the people of Iran by the regime of the Islamic Republic, the United States, and Israel, and raised their voice against war and destruction, must also clearly and explicitly condemn these attacks on the Kurdistan Region and on the parties of Iranian Kurdistan, and through holding actions or writing collective letters to international organizations and European parliaments, ask these bodies to demand that the Islamic Republic stop these attacks on these regions and on these parties.”
