Nine members of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan were killed and two others injured in an Iranian missile strike on the group’s facilities in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, according to the HANA Human Rights Organization and the party itself.
The strike targeted several Komala camps and facilities in the Zargwezle area near Sulaymaniyah at around 6:00 a.m. local time on Friday, 17 July, HANA said in a statement, News.Az reports.
According to the rights organization, one of the two injured remains in critical condition.
Komala identified those killed as Peshmerga members but did not provide details about the identities or conditions of the wounded.
The dead were named as Farhad Qamari of Divandareh, Soroush Nasri of Marivan, Sina Safari of Shahabad, Yasin Kianpour of Shazand, Ahmad Mahmoudi of Baneh, Reza Sadeghi, Kasra Rahmannejad, Sivan Nikikha and Zakaria Faqih Hassan Agha, all from Bukan.
HANA said its preliminary investigation found that several of those killed had only recently joined the Komala Party and that there was no verified evidence they had assumed a continuous combat function or directly participated in hostilities.
The organization stressed that, under international humanitarian law, an individual’s legal status cannot be determined solely by labels such as “Peshmerga,” “party member,” or “volunteer.” It said the legality of the strike depends on whether those targeted belonged to an organized armed group with a continuous combat function or were directly participating in hostilities at the time of the attack.
HANA also said any assessment of the strike should consider whether the targeted sites constituted legitimate military objectives and whether the attack complied with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution under international humanitarian law.
The organization noted that the Zargwezle camps are located near civilian-populated areas and said any independent investigation should examine the type of munitions used, the timing of the strike, the availability of less harmful means of attack and the foreseeable risk to civilians. It added that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) record of cross-border military operations in recent years raises concerns about its compliance with international humanitarian law.
Komala said its camps and facilities have been targeted nearly 40 times in missile and drone attacks since the start of what it described as the “39-Day War.”
HANA called for a prompt, independent, impartial and transparent investigation into the attack to establish the circumstances of the strike, determine the legal status of those killed, assess the military nature of the targeted sites and evaluate whether the attack complied with international humanitarian law.
The organization also urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations and other international bodies to monitor the incident and take appropriate measures to ensure accountability.
It said that if an independent investigation concludes that civilians or other protected persons were intentionally targeted, or that the anticipated civilian harm was excessive in relation to the expected military advantage, the attack could constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law and potentially amount to a war crime.