For the first time since 2003, unidentified rocket strikes Khurmal area of Iraqi Kurdistan

For the first time since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, a rocket landed in the  Khurmal sub-district of Halabja province in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, southeast of Sulaymaniyah, near the border with Iran.

No casualties have been reported, and Kurdish officials have yet to identify from where it was launched. 

"Late on Tuesday, a rocket landed at a watermelon farm in our area. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Local police and security forces are now inspecting the site where the rocket landed, and we do not know whether the rocket has exploded or not," Faraidwn Mahmoud, mayor of Khurmal, told The New Arab. 

He also said they could not identify where the rocket had been launched, and that the incident was the first since 2003. 

The area is a tourist destination for thousands of local citizens and tourists from other parts of Iraq.  It is close to borders with neighbouring Iran where the bases of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties are located. 

Iran has recently warned Kurdish and Iraqi officials to either disarm the opposition groups or else it will launch an infantry operation deep into the Iraqi territories in pursuit of the armed opposition parties. 

Iran's ballistic and drone attacks on Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the Iraqi Kurdistan region on 29 September killed at least 13, including a pregnant woman, and at least 58 injured, including a Kurdish journalist.

#BREAKING
Loud explosions were heard moments ago in Khumal, southeast of Sulaymaniyah near the border with Iran.

Details unknown so far. #Kurdistan #TwitterKurds pic.twitter.com/u1dOyVPvXK

— Sardar Sattar (@SardarSattar) October 18, 2022

In a clear breach of Iraq's sovereignty, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) early on Wednesday attacked several bases for Iranian Kurdish opposition parties hosted in the Kurdistan region north of the country.

The attacks came as the Iranian regime is desperate to control internal peaceful demonstrations in the country. Iran has been rocked by nationwide demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa (Zhina) Amini on 16 September, after she was detained by Iran's morality police which enforces the Islamic Republic's strict restrictions on women's dress.

Before the launch of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US army launched missile attacks against the headquarters of Ansar al-Islam and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) in the sub-district, on suspicion of having ties with the al-Qaeda group, consequently, numerous militants were killed and wounded.