At least 12 killed, 50 wounded in attack on Kurdish opposition in Iraq

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- A missile attack that pounded an Iranian Kurdish opposition party's base in northern Iraq on Saturday killed at least a dozen people and wounded 50 others.

The party blames Iran for the attack, which hit the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, or PDKI, about 185 miles north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, CNN reported.

"Iran used long-range missiles in a coordinated attack on the PDKI's bases and adjacent refugee camps," a PDKI statement said.

The party posted pictures of smoke rising from the attack on its Twitter page.

Mohammed Salih, a PDKI representative, told CNN the shelling, fired from inside Iran's territory near the border, injured PDKI leaders Mustafa Mouloudi and Khalid Azizi.

The Kurdistan Regional Government Council of Ministers condemned the attack but called for parties "not to turn the territory into a field for settling accounts."

Officials said at least 10 rockets hit the headquarters of the PDKI and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.

"There are many martyrs and injured people, because of the rockets," Ibrahim Chukali, member of the leadership council of the KDP-Iran, told Kurdish news website Kurdistan 24.

The KDP-Iran and the PDKI, two of the main Kurdish opposition groups, have struggled with the Iranian government during the past few years over improved rights for the Kurdish minority in the country. The group makes up about 30 million people in Middle Eastern countries including Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.