A top Iraqi Kurdish commander has told Middle East Eye his forces have no plans to invade Iran but that he is exasperated by Iranian attacks on their bases.
Sirwan Barzani, a Peshmerga major-general and millionaire businessman, said that since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February, the Kurdistan region of Iraq has faced around 430 drone and missile attacks.
Sirwan, who is responsible for holding the Kurdish frontline against the Islamic State (IS) militant group in northern Iraq, met with MEE on Tuesday, the same day that Iranian ballistic missiles killed six Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers and injured 30.
The telecoms magnate, who is the cousin of the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, and nephew of its former president Masoud Barzani, referred to the strike as a terrorist attack.
“What's the reason why they attack the Peshmerga bases every day? What's the reason behind that? We did not do anything against them,” Sirwan said, referring to Iran. “We are neighbours. We have trade relations. We have historical relations.”
Middle East Eye ISSN 2634-2456
