Iran warns resuming attacks if opposition groups remain armed in Iraq

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A top Iranian military commander announced on Tuesday that his country would resume its attacks on the alleged bases of Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups in Iraq in the coming months if Baghdad fails to act on its commitment to disarm the militants.

“We will wait until September,” Major General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, said before the military resumes its drone and missile strikes against the Kurdish groups.

If the Iraqi government fails to honor its commitment or the opposition groups attack the Iranian forces, the commander added, the upcoming attacks will be “more powerful” than previous ones that had resulted in civilian casualties as well as damages. 

Tehran last year launched numerous rounds of missile and suicide drone attacks against the militant groups based in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, accusing them of stirring the mass protests that erupted after a Kurdish-Iranian girl, Mahsa Amini, died while in Iranian custody last September.

Iranian officials have requested their Iraqi counterparts to either disarm or expel the groups as a prerequisite for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to halt its attacks.

Condemning the attacks, the Region’s officials have said on numerous occasions that they would not allow Iraq’s semiautonomous region to pose a threat to its neighboring countries.