Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced that the pursuit and punishment of the Kurdish militant group PJAK is still ongoing in the northwestern border region of Iran and Iraq.
Mohammad Pakpour, the head of the IRGC ground forces, told Mehr News Agency that dozens of PJAK forces have been killed in the Sardasht border region.
Shirzad Kamangar, a PJAK spokesman, told AFP on Sunday that the group has suffered a number of casualties.
Later, the Islamic Republic News Agency cited “an informed source” in Sardasht to report that PJAK’s regional headquarters has been destroyed, and five PJAK members and one Revolutionary Guards member were killed in the operation.
Kamangar denied that PJAK’s base had been taken over by the IRGC forces.
The IRGC commander insisted, however, that its forces had “decisively” confronted PJAK and, destroying their base and killing dozens of their members.
Aladdein Boroujerdi, who heads Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Fars News Agency: “One of the duties of the IRGC, especially in the Western regions, in view of the crimes committed by Pejak organization with the support of the Untied States, is to confront this terrorist group.”
In the past three weeks, the border regions of Iran and Kurdistan have been subjected to artillery attack by Islamic Republic forces.
Massoud Barezani, the head of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), has condemned Iran’s artillery attacks and warned that they may create tensions between the two governments.
Iranian authorities claim the KRG has given PJAK a 300-acre region without Baghdad`s approval.
General Jabbar Yavar, a spokesman for KRG security forces, told Radio Zamaneh that those allegations are baseless.
On Wednesday, the KRG is sending a panel to the border region in order to prepare a report on the IRGC attacks to the KRG Parliament.
