Iran's northern Kurdish region was effectively shut down by a civic strike that began Sept. 12, with most businesses and markets closed. The strike was called to protest the executions [7] of six Kurdish militants and air-strikes on the headquarters of Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties across the border in Iraq. The missile strikes on the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI [8]) and Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI [9]) in town of Koya, outside Erbil, left at least 15 dead and several wounded Sept. 9. The air-strikes were claimed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in a statement that called the parties "terrorist" groups. The civic strike was called by the Coordination Center of Rojhelat, an umbrella group that includes the KDPI, PDKI, Komala [7] and other Iranian Kurdish parties. "The criminal regime of the Islamic Republic added a new black page of its history of crimes and barbarism against the Kurdish nation," read the statement by the Coordination Center. Rojhelat (East) is the Kurdish word for Iranian Kurdistan. (Rudaw [10], Kurdistan24 [11], Al Arabiya [12], RFE/RL [13])
