ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A drone attack on a Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) base in Erbil on Wednesday killed at least one  of its members and injured several others, with the party accusing Tehran of the offensive.

The attack began at 5:45 in the morning, when a drone targeted the PAK base, followed by a rocket strike and a final drone striking the site, marking three consecutive assaults.

PAK, a Kurdish opposition party based in western Iran (Rojhelat), in a statement blamed the attack on the Iranian state, and announced that one member of the logistics unit was killed in the offensive.

An injured member stationed at the base told The New Region that only he and one of his colleagues were present at the site “and from what I know, my friend fell martyr.”

He said that he was asleep when the attack transpired and “everything had caught fire" by the time he woke up.

The armed Kurdish opposition groups of Iran have fought an on-and-off war with the Islamic Republic of Iran for decades now, striving for greater rights of Kurds in the western regions of the country.

Iran considers the Kurdish groups threats to its national security, repeatedly calling on the KRG to stop them from using the border areas as a launchpad for attacks, however all of the Kurdish parties have time and again claimed that they are in a state of self-defense and have not provoked Tehran.

The Islamic Republic regularly carries out cross-border artillery, drone and ballistic missiles on alleged positions of the Kurdish armed groups, with civilians often caught in crossfire.

The development comes amid ongoing nationwide protests in Iran. With chants increasingly targeting the state, the authorities have begun an intensive crackdown, killing at least 3000 demonstrators across the provinces with ethnic minorities, especially Kurds, disproportionately targeted.