Commander: IRGC Operations in Northwestern Iran Foils Future Threats

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said the IRGC Ground Force operations in Northwestern Iran in recent months thwarted future enemy threats against the country.
The IRGC Ground Force has recently been in a fierce battle against the PJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) terrorist group in the Northwestern parts of the country, and succeeded in pushing back the terrorists to their hideouts in Northern Iraq after killing and injuring scores of PJAK members.

“This grouplet was potentially prepared to pose a threat to a major part of the Islamic Republic’s borders at the US and Israel’s order, and the (IRGC’s) Ground Force took action against this threat on the basis of a precise and preventive plan which still continues,” the IRGC commander said during a ceremony held here in Tehran on Tuesday to honor the IRGC personnel martyred in Northwestern Iran.

“Terrorist groups want to deploy in these sensitive regions through the US backup in a bid to stage more extensive plans against the Islamic establishment (of Iran) in future, but the smart and vigilant action taken by the IRGC Ground Force prevents these future threats,” he added.

In July, the IRGC arrested several teams of PJAK, who intended to infiltrate Iran to stage terrorist operations in the country.

In response, Iran deployed about 5,000 military forces in the Northwestern parts of the country along its joint border with the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

During the operations, the IRGC forces killed, injured and arrested tens of terrorists and destroyed their headquarters in the bordering areas of Alvatan near Sardasht city in Northwestern Iran.

But, upon a request by Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the group was given a one-month grace period during the Muslims’ holy fasting month of Ramadan to retreat from the Northwestern borders of the Islamic Republic and stop its terrorist acts in these regions.

The IRGC resumed military operations against the Iraq-based PJAK terrorist group after its one-month deadline to the terrorist group ended.

Senior Iranian political and military officials have always underlined that the IRGC will continue operations against the terrorist group in a bid to defend Iran’s territorial integrity.

PJAK reportedly called for a ceasefire with Iran after some of their members were killed and others injured in the IRGC’s latest round of operations against the terrorist group.

Last week, the IRGC announced that it had arrested two senior commanders of the terrorist PJAK group in an operation in the Northwestern parts of the country.

“9 members of the grouplet have been arrested two of which are commanders of the PJAK,” Brigadier-General Nasser Shabani, an official of the IRGC, told FNA last Saturday.

The number two man and second leader of the PJAK terrorist group, Majid Kavian, was also earlier killed in an IRGC operation in Northwestern Iran.

The deputy commander of the Iraq-based PJAK terrorist group, Majid Kavian, alias Semko Sarholdan, was killed in an IRGC operation in Northwestern Iran last Saturday.

The website of the terrorist group confirmed his death in a statement.

After the group sustained a heavy toll and injuries during the new round of IRGC operations, the ringleader of PJAK, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, told the BBC Persian channel that the group will continue fighting with Iranian forces if the IRGC refuses to accept the ceasefire.

In reply, the IRGC said it would not accept a ceasefire with the PJAK before the Iraq-based terrorist group leaves Iranian borders.

“We want them to leave our borders as a first step and staging a ceasefire is meaningless at present,” Ahmadi, who is the spokesman of the IRGC in Northwestern Iran, told FNA on Monday.

But, after repeated demands by the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government officials, the IRGC Ground Force called on the Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional government to specify the terms and contents of the ceasefire demand presented by the Iraq-based PJAK terrorist group.

“Since the contents of the unilateral ceasefire called by the PJAK terrorist grouplet are not clear, the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government which has mediated the measure is required to adopt the necessary action to clarify the goal of the declared ceasefire as soon as possible,” a statement by the IRGC said last Tuesday.

“Naturally, the IRGC will announce its official view once the terms and contents of the (proposed) ceasefire are specified,” the statement added.

The IRGC Ground Force also underlined the necessity for the withdrawal of all outlaws, anti-revolutionary forces and elements of the PJAK terrorist group from the bordering areas of Iran.

It has been reported that PJAK and PKK members have dug new tunnels in the Jasosan heights close to Iran’s border regions over the past month, exploiting the IRGC ceasefire during the fasting month of Ramadan.

In addition, PJAK and PKK terrorists have received new weapons and equipment, including 120-millimeter mortars and walkie-talkies, from the US consulate in the Northern Iraqi city of Arbil.

PJAK, a militant Kurdish nationalist group with bases in the mountainous regions of Northern Iraq, has been carrying out numerous attacks in Western Iran, Southern Turkey and the Northeastern parts of Syria where Kurdish populations live.

The separatist group has been fighting to establish an autonomous state, or possibly a new world country, in the area after separating Kurdish regions from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

Iranian intelligence and security officials have repeatedly complained that Washington provides military support and logistical aids for such anti-Iran terrorist groups.