TEHRAN — The Israeli regime is using anti-revolutionary bases in northern Iraq against Iran, the commander of the IRGC ground force has said, insisting operations against terrorist groups will continue until they are disarmed.

In an interview published on Monday, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour announced that the forces under his command have hit 40 terrorist targets with tens of suicide drones.

“Separatist elements of Komala and Democrats have made actions against our country in the past years. They sent teams to carry out terrorist activities inside our country, but most of these teams were identified and destroyed after entering the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In addition, from 2016 onwards, these separatist groups started to establish operational bases and training centers in the northern region of Iraq,” Pakpour stated.

He added that due to the aforementioned actions, Iran has regularly and officially voiced its protest to the authorities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (KRG) about the activities of these groups.

It is for years that these separatist groups use northern Iraq as a training center to commit hit and run operations in west and northwestern Iran.

Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour says since the KRG did nothing “our patience also ran out and it made us start operations to destroy the terrorist bases.” “Every year they (KRG officials) have been told that the purpose of these separatist elements is Iran. A country known as Iran's friend and neighbor cannot accept separatist and terrorist elements whose goal” is to create insecurity inside Iran, the IRGC commander pointed out. 

“We regularly pointed out these issues to the authorities of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,” he clarified, adding that every time they suggested that “we will eliminate their bases, because the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran is our security.”
 
“Of course, these statements were only words and not only no action was taken in practice, rather their activities against our country increased every year compared to the previous year, and even these separatist elements increased the number of their bases in northern Iraq,” Pakpour explained. 

Therefore, he added, due to the KRG authorities’ disregard to the warnings by Iran, the IRGC had to act and hit the Democratic Party in September 2017, which resulted in casualties for the terrorists. 

“After that, we again announced to the KRG officials and the Iraqi central government that the activity of the mentioned elements in Iraq is one of the issues we are following, as we cannot tolerate that the separatists hold training classes there with complete peace, get equipped and send teams to carry out terrorist activities on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s soil. In response to these repeated protests, the aforementioned authorities announced that we would eliminate their bases, but this never happened,” the IRGC commander stated. 

He then clarified that for this very reason, the IRGC hit some of their headquarters again two years later, and again the KRG officials made the same promises as before. 

“During this period, several times we sent delegations to (see) the authorities of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and emphasized that we do not tolerate this situation, that is the expanding presence of separatists along the borders of our country, because in the past two years, they had built operational bases on our borderlines in order to easily move into our country to carry out terrorist activities,” Pakpour stated. 

The general went on to note that in 2022, Iran sent delegations to meet the KRG authorities to remind these issues to them.

“We told them that these elements are expanding their activities in northern Iraq and therefore they are building strong bases, strengthening their educational centers and, as in the past, their answer was that your security (Iran’s security) is our security. A subject that always remains only in words.”“What we told them was that these elements are expanding their activities and therefore they are building strong bases, strengthening their educational centers and, as in the past, their answer was that your security is our security. A subject that always remains only in words,” Pakpour illuminated. 

Emphasizing that it is possible for terrorists not only to “nest” there, but also to expand their activities against Iran.

The IRGC official also said he believed that the Americans were behind the operation of Kurdish groups in west and northwestern Iran. 

“This is because the (Kurdish) Democrats were divided into two groups, but since four years ago, due to the pressure that the Americans exerted on them, they were reunited with each other to intensify the operational and terrorist actions inside the Iranian soil, and of course, at the same time, they also pressured the regional authorities, saying that they should support the mentioned elements and have nothing to do with them,” Pakpour explained. 

According to the information Iran has received, he said, it seems that there is no will to deal with these terrorist elements on the part of the KRG.

“About a month and a half ago, the Intelligence Ministry identified and arrested a terrorist group that planned to sabotage Isfahan's nuclear facilities. In their confessions, they stated that the Zionist regime, by being present in the bases of terrorist groups in the northern region of Iraq, selected people and by taking them to Israel and after providing the necessary training, they send trained teams to carry out terrorist activities inside Iran. Therefore, these bases can also be considered the bases of the Zionist regime, because their interest goes to the Zionist regime,” the commander announced.

He stated that the members of the aforementioned groups killed the local people under various names such as "Zagros Eagles" in areas such as Oshnaviyeh and Piranshahr (in Iran’s West Azerbaijan), who had a sense of loyalty to the Islamic Republic.
 
“Although we sent the proofs of such actions to the officials of the northern region of Iraq, nothing happened to prevent the repetition of similar actions by them. This made us feel that maybe they think that we are complacent in dealing with terrorists based in the region or that we do not have a strong will to deal with them. Therefore, after the recent riots that happened in some cities of Kurdistan, we saw the elements of Komala and Democrats come and carry out violent actions in the streets,” he said. 

Since they did nothing “our patience also ran out and it made us start operations to destroy the terrorist bases,” the IRGC commander stated.
 
He then went on to note the details of the recent operation, stating, “For this purpose, we first started shelling the terrorist bases located on the borders of our country with artillery shells and rockets. After that, we hit the bases of terrorist elements up to a depth of 130 kilometers from the borders of our country. Naturally, we had already announced that people should stay away from the surrounding areas of terrorist gathering centers because we are targeting their headquarters,” he explained. 

Noting that the accuracy of IRGC missiles and drones is high, Pakpour added that in certain areas the IRGC hit about 40 targets with more than 70 missiles and dozens of suicide drones with 99% accuracy. 
“This was the heaviest operation of the IRGC's missile and drone operation, which brought a very good result. In case of repetition of terrorist acts by the mentioned elements, these operations will continue, because as we have already announced, our operations will continue until the separatist groups are disarmed, unless the KRG authorities think of disarming them,” he warned.

According to the commander, these events affect the security of the region. 

He went on to say that the officials of the Iraqi central government are also responsible, because this area is part of the Iraqi territory.

“We believe in the integrity of the Iraqi territory. The central government of Iraq must supervise its borders, because in the absence of the central government, terrorists are present in more than one-third of the territory of Iraq which borders with us. Even the KRG forces are not stationed at the border and this has caused us to border with terrorists. Meanwhile, the Iraqi authorities should show their responsibility and prevent terrorist groups from entering the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran by deploying guards on the borders,” Pakpour stated. 

According to the commander, Iran has come to the conclusion that it must continue its work to achieve the goal of preventing terrorists from entering the country. 

“I again request the KRG authorities and the Iraqi central government to help their security and ours and either expel these groups from the region or disarm them and send them to their homes,” Pakpour proposed. 

He then clarified that most of the arguments that the KRG officials raise are just “excuses,” because they know that Kurdistan will never be separated from Iran. Therefore, he added, they seek to implement the plans of arrogant countries to put pressure on Iran’s security and create insecurity in Iran. 

“Americans and Zionists have done all they could against our country. Americans should use their experience that no damage is done to the Islamic Republic of Iran by these events and actions of these separatist groups and elements. They had this experience not only in Kurdistan and northwest of Iran, but also in southeastern and northern parts of the country. Despite all these failed experiences of theirs which made us more cohesive, they do not stop their actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is a sign of their stupidity,” Pakpour concluded.