IRGC arrests two PJAK commanders

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says nine members of the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) have been arrested, two of whom served as commanders of the terrorist group.

“Confessions of these individuals will help us to identify the hideouts of the terrorist group and to discover their arms and ammunition storages,” IRGC Brigadier-General Nasser Shabani said on Saturday.

Shabani said the IRGC has dealt heavy blows to the PJAK during its operations in the northwestern parts of the country, adding that the group recently called for a ceasefire, indicating the extent of casualties they have suffered, Fars News Agency reported.

In a statement on September 3, PJAK — an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — called for a ceasefire with Tehran upon the request of some “mediation parties.”

The offer comes as members of the PJAK and PKK dug new tunnels and built fronts in the Jasosan heights close to Iran’s border regions over the past month, exploiting the IRGC’s ceasefire during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The PJAK and PKK terrorists have also received new weapons, including 120-millimeter mortars, and walkie-talkies from the US consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.

PJAK members regularly engage in armed clashes with Iranian security forces along the country’s western borders with Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Nearly 30 terrorists had been killed or injured in the recent IRGC operations.