Iran's Revolutionary Guards Have Confirmed That They Launched Missile Strikes On Kurdish Rebels In Iraq

RFE: Iran's Revolutionary Guards Confirm Deadly Missile Strikes On Kurdish Rebels In Iraq

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says it was behind a rocket assault on an Iranian Kurdish rebel group in Iraq that killed at least 11 people.

In a September 9 statement carried by Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency, the IRGC said it fired seven missiles in the attack a day earlier on the armed opposition group in northern Iraq.

"In a successful operation, the Guards' aerospace unit, along with the army's drone unit...targeted a criminal group's meeting and a terrorist training center with seven short-range surface-to-surface missiles," the statement said.

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Update #1: Iran's IRGC confirms firing 7 missiles at Iraq-based terrorists (Press TV - Iran)
Update #2: Iraq Protests Strikes as Iran Confirms Attacking Kurdish Rebels -- Bloomberg

WNU Editor: It is also a message to Baghdad .... Iran’s attack on Kurds is a message to Washington, Riyadh and Jerusalem (Jerusalem Post).

Iran Deploys Tanks To The Iraqi-Kurd Border

The Warzone/The Drive: Iranian Tanks Roll Up to The Iraqi Border As Embargo of Kurds Expands

Iraqi Kurdistan's neighbors have rushed to block the independence push, while the US and others downplay the situation.

Iran has moved tanks and artillery up to the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, close enough to the boundary that they are visible from the other side. The move is the latest in a string of increasingly threatening responses to the semi-autonomous region’s decision to vote in favor of independence, which has drawn widespread condemnation from national governments in the region and failed to win unequivocal support from many of the Kurd’s powerful western allies, including the United States.

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More News On Iran Deploys Tanks To The Iraqi-Kurd Border

Iran sends tanks to border with Iraq's Kurdish region, Kurdish official says -- Reuters
Iran and Iraq Hold Joint Drill Near Iraqi Kurdish Region -- US News and World Report/AP
Iran, Iraq hold exercises near border with Kurdistan -- Arab News/AFP
Iran, Iraq Hold Joint Drill Near Iraqi Kurdish Region -- RFE
Iran, Iraq hold exercises near Iraqi Kurdistan -- The Times of Israel
Iran launches military drill with Iraqi Shiite militia on KRG border -- RUDAW
Iran, Iraq Hold Joint War Game -- Tasnim News Agency

Is Saudi Arabia Supporting Kurdish Rebels In Iran?

Image: BBC

Reuters: To Iranian eyes, Kurdish unrest spells Saudi incitement

A decision by a Kurdish opposition group to take up arms against Iranian authorities has senior officials in Tehran worrying that Saudi Arabia is seeking to undermine its stability in a deepening of their regional rivalry.

Riyadh denies the charge. But tension between the two countries is surging, with Saudi Arabia and Iran supporting opposite sides in wars in Syria and Yemen and rival political parties in Iraq and Lebanon. The contest has largely hewed along sectarian lines as mainly Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia, a predominantly Sunni country, vie for influence.

That competition, officials in Tehran worry, has now spread inside their borders, thanks to what they fear is Riyadh's exploitation of the Islamic Republic's communal rifts.

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WNU Editor: Iran's Achilles heel has always been its many minority groups within the country .... the Kurds being one of many. Fermenting this type of strife can easily become  a huge headache for Tehran.

Top Iranian General Spotted In Kurdish Controlled Iraq

Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, poses with Kurdish fighters in Iraq in this undated photo. (photo by Twitter/@Mojtaba_Fathi)

Iran Op-Ed Asks Soleimani To Defend Kobani -- Al-Monitor

The advancement of the Islamic State group (IS) militants on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani near the Syria-Turkey border has alarmed many Iranian citizens, resulting in protests and even an op-ed by an Iranian news site asking the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, to take action.

Protests broke out in several Kurdish cities in western Iran, as well as other cities across country including Tabriz, Mashhad and Tehran itself in front of the Turkish Embassy to express their support for Kobani. Human rights and dissident activists were also in attendance at some of the protests. Iranian Kurdish musicians Shahram Nazeri and Sedigh Tarif have also gone on hunger strike to bring attention to the plight of Kurds in Kobani.

As Kurdish fighters currently engaged in the battle await more air strikes by the United States against IS positions or assistance from Turkey in opening the border to reinforcements, a complicated relationship between Turkey, Kurdish groups in Turkey and Syria and the anti-IS coalition seems to be delaying the more serious action that was seen when IS advanced toward Kurds in Iraq in the summer.

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My Comment: If the Kurds are welcoming someone like the head of Iran’s Quds Force .... it tells me that they are more desperate in their war against the Islamic State than what we are being told. It also tells me that Iran is worried about the rise of the Islamic State .... that they are even willing to work with Kurdish groups who have long supported an independent Kurdistan in the northwestern part of Iran.

Iranian Forces Invade Iraq's Kurdish Region To Stamp Out Rebel Bases

Image from eKurd.net

Iranian Troops Attack Kurdish PJAK Rebel Bases In Iraq -- BBC

Iranian forces have inflicted a "heavy and historic defeat" on Kurdish rebels based in Iraq, army officials say.

Iranian troops took control of three camps of the Kurdish rebel group, PJAK, which operates from northern Iraq, Col Delavar Ranjbarzadeh said.

But rebel sources denied the claims, saying they had killed 53 soldiers and lost only two rebel fighters.

PJAK, which calls for autonomy for Iran's minority Kurds, is regularly targeted by Iranian forces.

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More News On Iranian Forces Attacking Kurdish Bases In Iraq

Report: Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces take control of Kurdish bases in Iraq amid clashes -- Washington Post
Report: Iranians seize Kurdish bases in Iraq -- Forbes/AP
Iran 'takes control' of Kurdish camps in Iraq: Guards -- AFP
Iran media: Troops dismantle Kurdish rebel camp -- CNN
Kurds battle Iranians at border -- Washington Times
Iran attacks Kurdish fighters' camp -- Al Jazeera
Iranian Raid Kills Two Kurdish Rebels in Northwest -- Voice of America
Two Kurds, Iran Guard killed on Iraq border -- AFP
IRGC takes PJAK camp near Iraqi border -- Press TV (Iran)
About 30 Iranian soldiers, number of PJAK, killed in clashes in northern Iraq -- Aswat al-Iraq (Iraq)

My Comment: While border clashes are increasing .... everyone in the region is looking at this development and fearing for the future.

Iranian Military Forces Enter Iraq's Kurdish Region

Kurdish guerrillas on the Iraqi side of the border with Iran (AFP)

Iranian Attacks Kill At Least 2 In Kurdish Region Of Iraq -- Washington Post

BAGHDAD -- At least two people have been killed and dozens of families have fled in the mountains of the semiautonomous Kurdish region during two weeks of heavy air strikes and artillery attacks that come from neighboring Iran.

The dead include a 14-year-old girl and a 45-year-old woman.

Incensed by the intensity of the attacks and what they say is a brazen ground movement nearly two miles into Iraqi territory, Kurdish officials have reached out to the central government to stop the Iranian incursion and continued shelling, said Jabar al-Yawar, the spokesman for the peshmerga, the Kurdish regional force.

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More News On The Iran - Iraq/ Kurdish Conflict

Iraqi official says Iranian troops cross border -- AP
Iran troops twice cross border to fight rebels: Iraq Kurds -- AFP
Iranian Troops Cross into Iraq's Northern Border -- CRIEnglish
Kurds say small unit of Iranian troops enters Iraq -- Reuters
Despite condemnations, Iran does not stop bombing Kurdistan Region -- Kurdish Globe

Iran Launches Airstrikes On Iraqi Villages -- Danger Room

Iranian aircraft attacked three villages inside Iraq over the weekend. The airstrikes — Iran’s first on Iraqi soil since the U.S. invasion — could complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to normalize relations with Tehran.

“The bombardments appeared to have targeted the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an Iranian Kurdish separatist group which has launched attacks on Iran from rear-supply bases in the mountains of northern Iraq,” AFP reports. Iran has attacked the Kurdish group before, with artillery. But this is the first time the Iranians followed up, with assaults from the air.

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More News On The Iran - Kurdish Conflict

Iranian Helicopters Attack Iraqi Kurdish Border Region -- Voice Of America
Iran shells Iraqi Kurdistan village -- Reuters
PJAK told to stop cross border attacks on Iran -- Tehran Times