Iraq Complains as Iranian Shelling of Kurdistan Continues

12 Days of Shelling in Latest Salvo

The Iraqi government announced today that it has filed a former protest over “improper use of force” related to repeated Iranian shelling of Iraqi Kurdistan over the past 12 days.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has been angrily complaining about the shelling, and reports of Iranian incursions, for days, and report that at least one civlian, a 14 year old girl, was slain in one of the air raids.

Attacks against the semi-autonomous Kurdistan are nothing new, and both Iran and Turkey have been launching salvos intermittently basically since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

The attacks are aimed at Kurdish rebel groups that use the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan as a staging area, and generally have been shrugged off by the Iraqi national government and the US occupation forces. As bombardments get closer and closer to the region’s more remote towns, such casualties and scrutiny will almost certainly increase.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.