Iranian officials have said in the past that they are targeting the mountain sanctuaries of the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK), the Iranian Kurdish group that is now most active in battling Iranian state power.
But Iraqi Kurdish officials say the shells fall on villages, fields and farms. Only one Kurd has been reported killed over the months of sporadic shelling but some livestock has been hit, houses have been leveled and many villages have been evacuated, according to Iraqi Kurdish officials.
The latest round of shelling started after an Iraqi radio station quoted villagers as saying Iranian troops and PEJAK had fought a pitched battle on Iraqi soil with 12 Iranian soldiers and one PEJAK rebel killed.
Local reports say the shelling resumed June 26 after several weeks of relative quiet. They named several villages in the area of Choman in the Erbil governorate as being hit.