Iraq strongly condemns Iranian artillery shelling on Erbil’s Koy Sanjaq
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraq condemned on Sunday an Iranian artillery shelling on Erbil’s Koy Sanjaq district, in northern the country, stressing that it will not allow any country to violate its own sovereignty.
“The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs stresses its rejection of the artillery shelling that targeted Koy Sanjaq district in Erbil on Saturday, leaving scores dead and wounded,” Sputnik quoted the ministry’s spokesman Ahmed Mahjoob as saying.
“The ministry strongly refuses the breaching of Iraqi sovereignty without prior coordination with Iraqi military authorities to avoid the fall of civilian victims,” added the spokesman.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted Iranian Kurdish dissidents in Koy Sanjaq district on Saturday.
“In a successful operation, the Guards’ aerospace unit, along with the army’s drone unit … targeted a criminal group’s meeting and a terrorist training center with seven short-range surface-to-surface missiles,” the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by the semi-official news agency Fars.
The statement said the attack was prompted by a decision of “group leaders to ignore serious warnings by officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government about Iran’s determination to dismantle their bases … and the need for an end to terrorist and aggressive actions against Iran”.