Iran warns KRG after heavy clashes with Kurds along border

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iranian Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs, Hossein Zolfaqari, indirectly criticized the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Monday and warned Tehran would take matters into its own hands if Iranian Kurdish groups don’t stop its struggle inside Iran.

He called out “some neighboring countries for not preventing recent insecurity along common borders and warned that if they fail to act, the Islamic Republic will target terrorist strongholds in the countries,” the Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported.

The comments come after both the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) fought heavy battles with Iranian forces.

Last week, Iranian cross-border shelling killed two PDKI fighters, and injured civilians.

Moreover, PJAK killed 10 Iranian border guards last Saturday in response to the assassination of Iranian Kurdish activist Iqbal Muradi in the Kurdistan Region’s Penjwen on Wednesday, and the death of four PJAK fighters in clashes in Mariwan and Paveh.

Loghman H. Ahmedi, Member of the Executive Board of PDKI's Leadership, told Kurdistan 24 this is not the first time Iran has threatened Iranian Kurdish groups.

“They have made several threats. They use the words ‘anti-revolutionary/zde enghlab’ to refer to us. They said they would attack our bases, assassinate our leadership wherever they can find them, all over the world. These threats have to be taken seriously,” Ahmedi said.

“Their actual ability to carry out these threats is limited in the sense that they wouldn’t be able to make a ground invasion,” he added.

“We have always taken this kind of threats seriously, even when they don’t say anything we are aware that the Islamic republic is capable of terrorist actions. Twice in 2015 and 2017, they planted bombs in our camps,” Kako Alyar, a member of the Central Committee of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, told Kurdistan24. “Fortunately, no life was lost.”

“Now that pressure from inside the country [protests, lack of legitimacy, and non-consensus among high officials] and from the international community has considerably increased, the regime tries its best to blame the Kurdish and other opposition parties and legitimize any terror acts, but we are aware of that and take necessary measures,” he added.

Iran has carried out several assassinations against Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in recent months.

Two PDK-I Peshmerga fighters were targeted in a blast in Erbil’s subdistrict of Binaslawa on March 1. The explosion killed Sabah Rahmani, 33, and wounded his father.

On March 7, Qadir Qadiri, a senior Kurdish Peshmerga Commander of the (KDP-Iran), was killed in Sulaimani’s Rania city.

According to Ahmedi, there is no coordination between Turkey and Iran on attacks against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other Iranian Kurdish groups in the border area.

Last Sunday, there were heavy clashes between PJAK, a PKK-affiliate, and Iran forces.

“I don’t think there is coordination between Turkey and Iran. People tend to see these regions as one, but they target specific bases,” he explained, adding Iran targets civilian-populated areas “to upset and anger the people of the region and to incite them to put pressure on our Peshmerga in that region.”

“The fact that they managed to kill two Peshmerga is something that happens in war. But we have not seen any signs of coordination between Turkey and Iran,” the PDKI official said about Tehran’s latest cross-border shelling.

Dr. Jonathan Spyer, Director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, told Kurdistan 24 the uptick in conflict might be meant to build “pressure on the Iranian regime.”

“I think there is a clear decision by Iranian Kurdish groups to revive and intensify armed activity, probably in light of the more general unrest in Iran and possibly with a tacit green light from elements in the US administration,” he said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday denounced the Iranian regime as “a nightmare for the Iranian people.”

The KRG, meanwhile, has called on Tehran to end its indiscriminate shelling of areas near the Kurdish border and asked Iranian Kurdish fighters to avoid using the Region to attack its neighboring state.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany