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Iranian Kurd Group Accuses Tehran of Bombing that Killed 6 in Iraq


Mourners pray during a funeral of victims who were killed in a bomb attack at the offices of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in Koy Sanjak, east of Erbil, Iraq, Dec. 21, 2016.
Mourners pray during a funeral of victims who were killed in a bomb attack at the offices of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in Koy Sanjak, east of Erbil, Iraq, Dec. 21, 2016.

An Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group accused Iran on Wednesday of a bombing that killed five of its fighters and an Iraqi Kurdish policeman in northern Iraq.

A twin explosion late on Tuesday hit the offices of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in Koy Sanjaq, east of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region.

After the first blast, a second, larger one went off as members of the group and police rushed to the spot, PDKI central committee member Asso Hassan Zadeh told Reuters.

"There is no doubt that it's the Iranian regime," Hassan Zadeh said, speaking at the fighters' funerals. "But in any case we will not stop our struggle."

In June and July, PDKI fighters fought Iranian Revolutionary Guards in northwestern Iran, with several killed on both sides.

Hassan Zadeh said Iranian forces had initiated those clashes.

He said the PDKI members involved in that fighting were not in Iran to attack the Iranian military. "They were only there conducting organizational and political activities, to be in touch with our people and to be present inside our country," he said.

Iran's 8 to 10 million Kurds mostly live in the northwest, close to Iraqi and Turkish Kurdish communities across the border.

The PDKI says it has no official ties or shared operations with other Kurdish groups in Iraq, Turkey or Syria.

No Iranian government spokesman could be reached for comment.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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