Iran destroys headquarters of 'counter-revolutionary' groups in Iraq

Iranian Security Forces have obliterated four headquarters of the “counter-revolutionary” groups in a rare aerial strike on northern Iraq, acting commander of Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada base said on Monday, 20 September 2021. The strikes were made in retaliation to the movement of the allegedly west aligned militants in the area bordering the Islamic Republic. Speaking to media reporters in the aftermath, General Majid Arjmandfar said that the militants are deemed as " enemies of Iran" wherever they are and that Iranian forces consider it as a duty to carry out such "operations".

“Anti-revolutionary groups have been organized by the intelligence services of hostile and foreign countries, and even certain Arab states, in Northern Iraq to be used in line with their goals and create obstacles on the way of the Islamic Republic,” he was quoted assayng by Xinhua. 

Cross Border Conflict

It is imperative to note that Anti-Iran militancy has seen a surge in the notorious Qandil mountain ranges located on the Iraqi-Iranian border. Iranian Revolutionary Guards along with Turkish troops have frequently bombarded the Qandil ranges as a part of its ongoing conflict with PKK, which seeks the foundation of an independent Kurdish state. Additionally, since the mid-1990s, it also maintains several military bases in Northern Iraq pertaining to an agreement inked with now-dead Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussain. On the other hand, PKK  maintains camps across Northern Iraq, which it allegedly uses as a base to attack southeast Turkey.

Earlier in April, in what Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan termed as Operation Claw-Lightning, the Turkish military laid a ground-and-air offensive against Kurdish fighters in Northern Iraq. Describing the operation, the Turkish defence ministry said that commando forces landed in Iraq’s Metina region from helicopters while fighter jets bombed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets. “Heroic commandos of the heroic Turkish Armed Forces are in northern Iraq,” the ministry said in a statement, without specifying how many soldiers were involved in the operation then.

File Image: AP