The commander of the Army Ground Forces, Brig. Gen. Ahmad-Reza Purdastan, said the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) had been defanged and would soon be completely annihilated.
“The scroll of the terrorist group PJAK will be rolled up in the coming days and full security will be restored to the border areas,” Purdastan said dramatically. PJAK rebels “are now in a weak position and their activities have been greatly reduced”-so reduced that PJAK is no longer considered a “threat,” he said.
The main PJAK base that Iran claimed to have destroyed was inside Iraqi territory, but Iranian officials avoided saying that directly so as not to admit they had sent troops inside Iraq. The announcement said the PJAK base “west of Sardasht,” a city in Iran, had been totally destroyed.
The statement from the Pasdaran said, “The Pasdaran have cleaned up the main base in the Jasusan Mountains of PJAK terrorists to ensure the region’s security and peace.”
But it also said Iran has asked the Iraqi Kurdistan government to deploy its forces along the Jasusan and Haji Ibrahim mountains to prevent PJAK militants from reestablishing themselves and infiltrating Iran. They would not be calling on Iraqi Kurdistan to post troops around the destroyed base if it were not in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Iranian Army and Pasdaran began a concentrated action against PJAK in July, and until last week officials were vowing to continue their operations until they deactivated PJAK. The current change of tone clearly indicates the military feels it has succeeded in spades and the operation is nearing its final stages.
On Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was willing to launch joint ground operations with Iranian forces in Iraq against the PJAK and its sister militant organization, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), comprised of Kurds in Turkey who long have fought the Turkish government.
However, Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Bahman Hossainpur rebuffed Erdogan, saying on Saturday that Iran was not interested in any joint operations.
“The two brotherly nations can conduct coordinated action against them…. But coordinated activity does not mean we will carry out a joint operation in northern Iraq,” he told the press.
The distinction is technically a major one, and indicated sensitivity on Iran’s part to any suggestion of its military operating under a single command with another military.