Several roadside IEDs were discovered and disarmed Saturday, along an established road leading to the, Kurdish–Iranian, Komala Party headquarters in Sulaymaniyah. Komala’s security chief, Dara Mustafa, disclosed to local news sources that the tactical objective of the IEDs was to, “target us, especially the convoys of the leadership of Komala,” and, “We later were able to discover the place where the bombs had been laid.” The chief’s cavalier attitude was in part due to the fact that the Komala had some notion of prior warning to the attack but no details were given in that regard.

The exact route where the bombs were employed on a street running through the village of Rizgwezalla, a small mountain town on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyah. The IEDs were camouflaged in painted/textured paper mache to imitate the rocks found strewn about the country. It is believed that the targets were the guests of a graduation ceremony for a class of new Komala-affiliated Peshmerga soldiers; civilians, and family and Komala party members.

The party was also preparing for a rather large New Year’s celebration party. The identity of the saboteurs has not been disclosed and no group has claimed responsibility yet for the attempted attack.

Being a far left-wing political party of Iranian Kurdistan, identified as Rojhelat by the Kurdish people, the Komala party is engaged in active revolt and armed conflict with the Iranian government with outposts throughout the northern Kurdistan/Iran border. These types of targeted bombings and ambushes have occurred many times before, the Komala party has come to expect nothing less at this point. The majority of the attacks they blame on Iranian government-backed operatives residing within the autonomous Kurdish region.