The announcement gave no details and it wasn’t clear what was intended.
The Iraqi central government has no troops at all in the area where the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) camps out just across the border from Iran. That area is part of the Kurdish Autonomous Region in northern Iraq.
It seems unlikely that the Kurdish authorities there would ever allow Iraqi Army units into the area.
The Kurdish leadership has explained that it will not send its own troops against PJAK because it fears setting off a Kurdish civil war.
At first glance, it would appear the announcement was just issued to please Iran with no follow-up likely.
Although the Islamic Republic declared victory over the Kurdish rebel PJAK last month, Iraqi television says Iran has continued shelling PJAK areas of Iraq this month.
In a broadcast last Tuesday, Al-Iraqiyah television in Baghdad reported “continuous” shelling of Iraqi border areas.
But eight days before that, the Pasdaran announced it had defeated PJAK and said it was a spent force.
The Islamic Republic launched a major offensive against PJAK in July, saying it had 5,000 troops in the region battling the rebels. The troops appear to have crossed the border to attack PJAK outposts inside Iraq.
The latest claims from Iran are rather limited. Officials say PJAK was driven out of Iran and is now pushed back inside Iraq and no closer than one kilometer from the border. Officials have suggested that PJAK had major bases inside Iran and that those have been destroyed.
PJAK, however, was not known to have any bases inside Iran. It was believed to live inside Iraqi Kurdistan and to launch periodic attacks across the border. If it is now within one kilometer of the Iranian border, it would not appear that the Iranian offensive accomplished very much.
