IRGC Launches Major Offensive against PJAK

PKK Joining PJAK in Fighting

IRGC said today that it has killed 30 members of the Kurdish militant group PJAK during clashed in northwestern Iran in the past two days. An IRGC spokesman said had said earlier that it had resumed operations against PJAK and were inflicting “heavy blows” on them.

“The operations to clear the country's northwestern area of the members of PJAK terrorist group will continue with strength,” said IRGC Colonel Hamid Ahmadi [IRNA, 3 September].

IRGC has deployed more than 5,000 troops in northwestern border areas of Qandil and Jasusan, the strongholds of PJAK (Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistan - "Party of Free Life of Kurdistan").

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said on Saturday it will aid PJAK in fighting against Iranian forces.

“From now on we will fight on the side of the fighters of PJAK against the Iranian attacks, that are trying to enter the Kurdistan region of Iraq, especially in the Qandil area,” PKK spokesman Dozdar Hammo said [AFP, 3 September].