The group said the raids, with similar attacks by the Turkish military, killed more than a dozen civilians while displacing thousands.
Iran and Turkey said they were responding to cross-border attacks from armed Kurdish militant groups. But Kurdish residents and officials in Iraq told Human Rights Watch, which visited the region, that many of the areas attacked are purely civilian and have no armed groups conducting attacks against Iran and Turkey or any other potential military targets.
“Iran may say it is responding to armed attacks from Iraqi Kurdistan, but its own attacks, including indiscriminate use of rockets near civilian villages, are causing grave harm to civilians,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), founded in Turkey, and the Iranian Kurdish Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) do maintain headquarters and operate in or near some civilian areas in Iraqi Kurdistan, Human Rights Watch said.
The situation in areas of Iraqi Kurdistan affected by Iranian bombardment improved after an early September cease-fire last year between Iran and PJAK, a group formed in 2004 that is affiliated with the PKK.
Human Rights Watch observed and photographed clearly marked remnants of Iranian 333mm Shahin rockets, one kilometer from a village in Pishdar district. The rockets, fired in late August, should not be fired from long range into populated areas because they cannot be precisely targeted, Human Rights Watch said.
According to local officials, the combined Iranian and Turkish attacks between July and November displaced about 1,350 families (8,000 individuals), although most families have now left the displacement camps in the region because of cold weather, lack of services, camp closures, and improved conditions back home.
Between November 7 and 10, Human Rights Watch visited 18 villages in the mountainous areas of Qalat Diza, Qandil, Sangasar, Zahrawa, and Sidekan, and spoke to more than 40 villagers who said they had fled their homes because of bombardments in or near their villages. Human Rights Watch observed dozens of damaged homes, more than 10 villages fully or partially deserted, and two temporary makeshift tent camps in Sidekan.
Human Rights Watch observed rebel activity in large portions of Qalat Diza and Qandil where the PKK or PJAK maintain checkpoints, and villagers confirmed their presence. But residents and local officials said that neither of the armed groups operated in other bombed areas that Human Rights Watch visited in Sidekan, Sangasar, and Zahrawa. However, portions of Qalat Diza and Qandil are effectively under the control of either the PKK or PJAK.
Since June 2010, Human Rights Watch has documented casualties to civilians and damage to their property caused by the Turkish and Iranian attacks, as well as evidence that suggests the regular Iranian bombardments may be an attempt to force Iraqi civilians out of some areas near the Iranian border. Iran has claimed all of its operations target rebels from PJAK operating in the mountainous border region, and Turkey claims it only targets the PKK, which is fighting a decades-long conflict with Turkey.
Both rebel groups openly admit to multiple guerrilla attacks against Turkish or Iranian soldiers in a self-proclaimed struggle for ethnic equality for Kurds in those countries.
The attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan have damaged the economy of the affected areas. Local officials and villagers told Human Rights Watch that the cross border attacks from both countries have forced hundreds of poor farmers to leave their crops and orchards unattended, destroying much of last year’s harvest – for many, their entire annual income.
A number of farmers told Human Rights Watch that because there had been shelling each year before then during the short planting and harvesting season, they believed it showed an intentional effort to drive civilians from the area by harming their livelihood.
Other damage reported to or witnessed by Human Rights Watch included houses, schools, wells and water storage, generators and electricity networks, and several hundred livestock killed.
“Turkey and Iran need to live up to their responsibilities toward civilians even if they live near places where military operations are ongoing,” Whitson said. “The PKK and PJAK should not unlawfully endanger civilians, either in the way they conduct their operations or by operating from or near civilian areas.”
In international humanitarian law, the principle of distinction requires parties to an armed conflict to distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians. Military operations may be directed only against combatants and other military objectives; civilians and civilian objects may not be the target of attack. Deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks against or affecting civilians and civilian objects are prohibited.
In Pishdar district, villagers and local officials said that after the September ceasefire between Iran and PJAK, Iran reduced its bombardment to occasional mortars. Though there is extensive damage in many of the villages, dozens of families moved back to their homes.
Several families told Human Rights Watch the situation has improved for the time being, but they also said the attacks in 2011 had intensified over previous years, causing increased damage.
On November 7, one kilometer outside the village of Shahid Ayhan in the Qalat Diza area, Human Rights Watch observed a burned out remnant of a rocket motor with markings identifying the weapon as an Iranian 333mm Type FL2-A, an unguided artillery rocket produced in 2010. This type of rocket is not capable of accurate targeting.
Under international law, indiscriminate attacks in or near civilian areas are prohibited. Attacks are indiscriminate when they are not directed at a specific military objective or employ a method or means of warfare that cannot be directed at a military objective or whose effects cannot be limited.
Human Rights Watch also witnessed PJAK fighters operating in the direct vicinity, and villagers said that PJAK fighters had a regular presence there.
Nearby PJAK fighters told Human Rights Watch that while they are present in Qalat Diza, they have no long-range weapons or planes to stage attacks originating from the civilian areas in Iraq.
More than 10 villagers living in the area near the rocket remnants gave consistent evidence about the effects of the FL2-A rocket explosions, which they said produced more fragmented metal than the explosions from other weapons used in previous years.
