ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iranian Kurdish shopkeepers on Wednesday began Rojhilat-wide (Iranian Kurdistan) strike against the executions of Kurdish activists and the bombing of opposition parties in Koya in the neighboring Kurdistan Region.

Over the weekend six Kurdish political prisoners were executed, and, in a missile attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I) and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDK-I), at least 15 were killed and 42 injured.

Kurdish parties and Kurdish activists in Iran called for shop owners to strike in protest of the Iranian government’s actions. Protests are also expected to take place in Europe.

People of eastern (Iranian) #Kurdistan are staging a general strike today in response to #Iran’s missile attack against their political parties and the execution of Kurdish political prisoners. #Twitterkurds #Rojhelat #PDKI #KDPI pic.twitter.com/qwWoSzvOcN — PDKI (@PDKIenglish) September 12, 2018

“People in Kurdistan will stage a peaceful general strike to show the brutal Islamist regime in Iran that we will not accept more military attacks against our political parties and executions of our political activist,” Loghman H. Ahmedi, a senior member of the PDKI’s leadership, told Kurdistan 24.

“This regime is on its last leg. With a combination of peaceful demonstrations and general strikes, together with the resistance of the Peshmerga Forces, the Kurdish people will be at the forefront to bring about change in Iran. The only factor that is missing is international support to end the rule of this brutal theocratic regime,” he added. </s> TEHRAN: Iran executed three alleged Kurdish separatists on Saturday, local media reported, despite criticism by the United Nations that at least one had been tortured in prison. Ramin Hossein Panahi, Zaniar Moradi and Loghman Moradi were all executed on Saturday, according to the conservative Fars news agency. It said Panahi had planned to bomb a rally in Iran’s Kurdish province last June. Zaniar and Loghman Moradi were accused of membership in an unnamed “terrorist separatist group” and of killing four people, including the son of the Friday prayers leader in the Kurdish city of Mariwan. Panahi was accused of membership in Komala, which has been waging a long-running separatist insurgency in Iranian Kurdistan from bases across the border in Iraq. He was sentenced to death in April, drawing criticism from UN human rights experts, who said his execution “would be unconscionable”.“We are deeply disturbed by reports that Mr. Panahi has suffered human rights violations before and during his trial, including incommunicado detention, torture and ill-treatment, and denial of access to a lawyer and adequate medical care,” they said in a report at the time.They pointed to reports that Panahi had been denied medical care for injuries suffered during his imprisonment, including from reported beating with cables.He had also reportedly started a hunger strike at the beginning of this year in the Rajaei-Shahr prison in Karaj, near Tehran. </s> Iran's top military commander defended Saturday's strikes in the Koya area east of Erbil, Iraq, which killed at least 16 and injured several dozen others, citing Tehran's right to defend itself amid US "provocations."

Iraqi Kurdish officials and the PDKI had "made a written commitment not to conduct operations in Iran, but they have been breaking that promise over the past year due to US provocations," Armed Forces Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri said in a statement on Tuesday, according to PressTV.

Bagheri also urged Baghdad and the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan to either extradite or deport the remnants of these Iranian Kurdish separatists, and warned that further "counter-measures" would be taken against commanders if the group's attacks on Iranian military and border forces persist.

"The officials of Iraqi Kurdistan and the Iraqi government should hand these criminals over to Iran. If they cannot do this, they should at least expel them and these groups from the country," he said, as quoted by Iran's IRIB broadcaster.

On Sunday, the IRGC issued a statement taking responsibility for the Erbil attack, justifying the strike by citing PDKI plans to carry out acts of sabotage in the provinces of West Azarbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah. The missile strikes are believed to have wounded PDKI secretary general Mustafa Mawludi and his predecessor Khalid Azizi.

In a separate statement issued on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the deaths of Iranian personnel "left the Iranian armed forces with no choice but to take a retaliatory and deterrent measure based on the credible information it had received" against the PDKI.

Iranian-Kurdish militant groups, most of them demanding autonomy or a separate Kurdish state, established bases in northern Iraq in the early 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War. The PDKI, an armed leftist Kurdish nationalist group, which Tehran characterizes as a terrorist group, waged a guerilla campaign against Tehran for decades before declaring a unilateral ceasefire with Tehran in 1996. Tehran accused the group of resuming its operations across the border from Iraq in 2016. </s> TEHRAN : Ten Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been killed by suspected Kurdish fighters in an attack on a post located on the Iraqi border, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency has reported.

The agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards' statement as saying that several of the attacking "terrorists" were also killed in the fighting in which a munitions depot was blown up, the latest deadly clash in an area where Kurdish armed opposition groups are active. The attack happened on Friday night in the village of Dari, in the Marivan district of the northwestern Kurdish region of Iran.

"The attack by the evil rebels and terrorists against a revolutionary border post and the explosion of a munitions depot caused the martyrdom of 10 fighters," the Guards' ground forces division said in the statement.

There was some confusion over the announcement, as the statement listed 11 names of "martyred" soldiers.

Provincial security official Hosein Khosheqbal told state television that 11 members of the Guards' voluntary Basij forces were killed in the overnight violence, which he blamed on the Kurdish armed opposition group the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK).

"The latest news is that the Basij and Guards forces are in hot pursuit of the attackers," Khosheqbal said.

PJAK, an outlawed group that seeks self-governance for Iran's Kurds and has links to Turkey's Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), operates in the border area, along with other armed Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq.

Earlier this month, the Revolutionary Guards said they had killed three fighters in a security operation near the border with Iraq, and nine fighters were reported killed by the Guards last month further north on the border. </s> DUBAI (Reuters) - Militants killed 10 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in an attack on a post on the Iraqi border on Saturday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, the latest deadly clash in an area where armed opposition Kurdish groups are active.

The agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards statement as saying that several of the attacking “terrorists” were also killed in the fighting in which a munitions depot was blown up.

Provincial security official Hosein Khosheqbal told state television that 11 members of the Guards’ voluntary Basij forces were killed in the overnight violence in the Marivan area, which he blamed on the Kurdish armed opposition group PJAK.

“The latest news is that the Basij and Guards forces are in hot pursuit of the attackers,” Khosheqbal said.

The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) — an outlawed group that seeks self-governance for Iran’s Kurds and has links to Turkey’s militant Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) — operates in the border area, along with other armed Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq.

Earlier this month, the Revolutionary Guards said they had killed three militants in a security operation near the border with Iraq, and nine militants were reported killed by the Guards last month further north on the border.

There is little coordination between Iranian and Iraqi forces over security of the porous border that has also been used by Islamic State to enter Iran.

Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said on Tuesday that security forces in southwest Iran arrested four suspected Islamic State operatives who were planning attacks.

In June 2017, Islamic State militants carried out coordinated attacks at the parliament building in Tehran and the mausoleum of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini south of the capital, killing at least 18 people. </s> Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported on July 21 that militants killed 10 soldiers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) during an overnight attack near the border with Iraq.

It was the latest deadly clash in an area of Iran where armed opposition Kurdish groups are active.

Tasnim quoted an IRGC statement as saying that several of the attacking "terrorists" also were killed in the fighting and that an ammunition depot was blown up.

Earlier, provincial security official Hosein Khosheqbal told Iranian state television that 11 members of the IRGC’s Basij forces were killed in the overnight violence in the Marivan area.

Khosheqbal blamed the attack on militants from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) -- an outlawed Kurdish armed opposition group that seeks self-governance for Iran’s Kurds and has links to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

PJAK operates in the border area along with other armed Kurdish groups that are based in northern Iraq.

There is little coordination between Iranian and Iraqi forces over security of the porous border that has also been used by Islamic State (IS) militants to infiltrate Iran.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, Fars, and Tasnim </s> GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran executed three Iranian Kurdish men accused of belonging to a militant group and taking part in attacks against civilians and security forces in the Kurdish region of western Iran, the judiciary’s news service reported on Saturday.

The executions took place despite a call on Friday for them to be halted by two U.N. human rights special rapporteurs, Javaid Rehman and Agnes Callamard, who said in a statement that the men had not been given a fair trial.

Amnesty International said the accused men had been denied access to their lawyers after being arrested and had said they were tortured into making confessions.

“We are horrified by the news that the Iranian authorities have executed these men, despite widespread condemnation of their death sentences and calls from U.N. human rights experts and other bodies to halt their executions,” Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement on Saturday.

The judiciary’s Mizan news service said Loqman Moradi and Zanyar Moradi were accused of carrying out an attack in the western town of Marivan in July 2009 that killed three people, including the son of a prominent cleric.

Ramin Hossein Panahi was accused of participating in an assault targeting security forces in the town of Sanandaj in June 2017.

Iran has one of the world’s highest execution rates. According to Amnesty International, 51 percent of all recorded executions in 2017 were carried out in Iran. </s> Militants have killed 10 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in an attack on a post on the Iraqi border, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reports, the latest deadly clash in an area where armed opposition Kurdish groups are active.

The agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards statement as saying that several of the attacking "terrorists" were also killed in the fighting in which a munitions depot was blown up.

Provincial security official Hosein Khosheqbal told state television that 11 members of the Guards' voluntary Basij forces were killed in the overnight violence in the Marivan area, which he blamed on the Kurdish armed opposition group PJAK.

"The latest news is that the Basij and Guards forces are in hot pursuit of the attackers," Khosheqbal said.

The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) - an outlawed group that seeks self-governance for Iran's Kurds and has links to Turkey's militant Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) - operates in the border area, along with other armed Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq.

Earlier this month, the Revolutionary Guards said they had killed three militants in a security operation near the border with Iraq, and nine militants were reported killed by the Guards last month further north on the border. </s> DUBAI/ISTANBUL: Iranian forces have launched war games in an area near the border with Iraq's Kurdistan region, Iran's state media reported on Sunday, a day before a Kurdish independence referendum in the region.

Turkey also said on Sunday its aircraft launched airstrikes against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq's Gara region on Saturday after spotting militants preparing to attack Turkish military outposts on the border.

Iraq's powerful neighbours, Iran and Turkey, strongly oppose the Kurdish vote as they fear could fuel separatism among their own Kurds. Iran also supports Shi'ite groups who have been ruling or holding key security and government positions in Iraq since the 2003 U.S-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has resisted calls by the United Nations, the United States and Britain to delay the referendum who fear it could further destabilize the region.

Iranian State broadcaster IRIB said military drills, part of annual events held in Iran to mark the beginning of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, are centred in the Oshnavieh border region. The war games will include artillery, armoured and airborne units, it said.

Clashes with Iranian Kurdish militant groups based in Iraq are fairly common in the border area.

On Saturday, Turkish warplanes destroyed gun positions, caves and shelters used by PKK militants, a military statement in Ankara said. Turkey's air force frequently carries out such air strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq, where its commanders are based.

Turkey's parliament voted on Saturday to extend by a year a mandate authorising the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria.

The PKK launched an insurgency in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The U.S. embassy in Iraq cautioned its citizens that there may be unrest during a referendum, especially in territories disputed between the KRG and the central government like the multi-ethnic oil-rich region of Kirkuk.

Three Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were killed and five wounded on Saturday when an explosive device blew up near their vehicle south Kirkuk, security sources said.

The explosion happened in Daquq, a region bordering Islamic State-held areas, the sources said.

Islamic State's ''caliphate'' effectively collapsed in July, when a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive, in which the Peshmerga took part, captured their stronghold Mosul, in northern Iraq.

The group continues to control a pocket west of Kirkuk and a stretch alongside the Syrian border and inside Syria.
Iranian Kurdish shopkeepers begin a region-wide strike against the executions of Kurdish activists and the bombing of opposition parties in Koya in the neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan Region.