A top IRGC commander has said that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps forces will continue their operations against the counter-revolutionary group PJAK (the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) in northwest Iran until Iraqi forces are stationed on the border between Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

“IRGC offensive and destructive operations against PJAK counter-revolutionary elements on the border between Iran and the north of Iraq will continue until the forces of the central government of Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan government will be deployed on the common border,” the IRGC commander said on Wednesday. 

The Iraqi government should accept responsibility for maintaining security on the two countries’ common border, he said. 

He also announced that over 50 PJAK terrorists have been killed and about 100 terrorists have been wounded in IRGC operations in northwest Iran over the past few weeks.   

The PJAK group was established in 2003. Camps and bases of the group are mostly located in Iraq near the border with Iran. 

On July 11, a high-ranking Iranian military official criticized Iraqi Kurdistan government for its inaction toward PJAK terrorists’ activities in Iraq and said that Iran reserves the right to attack and destroy PJAK’s terrorist camps and bases inside Iraq. Later, the IRGC went on a major offensive against the PJAK group. 

On Tuesday, Nazem Dabbagh, a representative of Iraq’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Iran, said that the PUK does not have the military capability to prevent PJAK from taking action against Iran.