ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – President Masoud Barzani on Sunday pressed the Iraqi government to urgently and decisively stop the acts of “clear warmongering” against the Kurdistan Region, reiterating Erbil’s neutrality in the regional war. 

“Iraqi authorities must either unify themselves or announce that they are unable to prevent these outlaw groups, or they must seriously intervene, protect the state, and take serious measures,” Barzani said in a statement.

The statement comes as attacks against the Kurdistan Region continue, particularly in the provinces of Erbil and Duhok. In the early hours of Sunday, drones continued targeting the Region’s cities. 

“Such attacks are clear warmongering and great oppression and excessive injustice against the Kurdistan Region, and a serious and unified solution must be found for them,” President Barzani stressed. 

He revealed that over 450 drones and missiles have targeted the Kurdistan Region, including bases of Kurdish Peshmerga forces, since the US-Israeli war with Iran began. An attack on a Peshmerga base on Tuesday killed six.

President Barzani, who is the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), also said that his party's headquarters has been targeted five times since the onset of the war, "but we remained silent so as not to create anxiety and anger among the public."  

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani’s residence in Duhok was struck by drones on Saturday afternoon without resulting in any casualties. No party has claimed the attack as of the writing of this article. 

The attack on Barzani's house garnered widespread condemnation across Iraq and beyond, including from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, among several other Iraqi and regional top figures.

In his statement, President Barzani asserted that the attacks against the Kurdistan Region “cannot be stopped with condemnations, phone calls, and committees.” 

Attacks on the Kurdistan Region by Iran and its proxies have intensified since the onset of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The Kurdistan Region's leaders have repeatedly stressed that the Region is not party to the ongoing conflict and does not plan to be.