Leaders of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties told Alhurra that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is operating extensively inside villages and towns in Kurdish areas along the border with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This includes relocating military bases, intelligence centers, and missile platforms into these border villages to shield them from U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
They added that “the IRGC continues at night to transport medium-range missiles and drones in containers carried by civilian trucks to border villages and mountainous areas, in preparation for launching missile attacks. Some of these are also being stationed in mountain tunnels that the Guard uses as bases for its missiles and weapons, away from aerial targeting.
Among the most prominent medium-range missiles recently deployed by the IRGC along the border with the Kurdistan Region are Emad, Sejjil, Qadr, Kheibar Shekan, Zulfiqar, and Shahab. These are accompanied by suicide drones such as Shahed, Hadid 110, Arash-2, and Mohajer-6. The latter two long-range loitering drones have ranges of up to 2,000 kilometers.
Adib Khaledian, a leader in the opposition Iranian Kurdistan Freedom Party, confirmed that the IRGC has mobilized large numbers of its forces along the entire border strip with the Kurdistan Region.
“In addition to mobilizing large numbers of troops, the IRGC has deployed thousands of medium-range missiles, including Khorramshahr and Fattah types, along with Shahed drones of the 101, 107, and 136 models. Their launch platforms are stationed in the cities of Javanrud and Eshieh in Kermanshah province, and from these cities missile attacks are launched toward the Kurdistan Region,” Khaledian told Alhurra.
Khaledian noted that the launch platforms for these missiles and drones are mobile systems mounted on small trucks, which the IRGC positions in mountainous areas, making them difficult to detect and target by U.S. and Israeli aircraft.
According to Khaledian, the role of the forces mobilized by the IRGC is not limited to launching missiles. They are also conducting continuous military exercises that include training for combat inside cities and villages. In addition, they carry out nighttime raids on villagers’ homes and launch random arrest campaigns, particularly targeting young people, under various accusations such as collaborating with the United States, Israel, or Kurdish opposition groups.
Over more than a month of war, Iran and Iraqi factions allied with it have attacked the Kurdistan Region with more than 450 missile and drone strikes, according to official statistics issued by the region’s leadership. Erbil alone accounted for more than 300 of these attacks.
Iran has been carrying out almost daily heavy artillery shelling on border villages in the Penjwen district of Sulaymaniyah province, under the pretext of targeting bases of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties. However, informed government security sources in Penjwen told Alhurra that no such party bases exist in the district or its villages, confirming that the Iranian shelling has caused severe material damage to agricultural fields and forests in the area.
For his part, Farzin Karbasi, an Iranian Kurdish opposition political analyst based in the Kurdistan Region, said that the IRGC moved its personnel and weapons into Kurdish border villages adjacent to the Kurdistan Region after many of its bases were struck by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
“Despite the destruction of many of its bases, the Iranian regime still poses a major threat to the Kurds through the missiles and drones it possesses. It has transferred large numbers of these into Kurdish areas in Iran. The increase in its forces in Kurdish cities and villages indicates its intention to launch further attacks on the Kurdistan Region, and it is also planning to destroy Kurdish cities inside Iran.”
Karbasi added that the IRGC has, in recent weeks, threatened Kurdish civilians in Iran with bombardment and annihilation if opposition Kurdish groups move against it.
Over recent years, according to Alhurra’s monitoring of the Iranian file based on information from Iranian activists and opposition figures, the IRGC has intensified its presence in Kurdish cities in western and northwestern Iran by establishing major bases, including air bases such as Kermanshah Air Base, as well as secret bases in the Zagros Mountains, including Air Base 313.
These bases host large numbers of ballistic missiles and drones, in addition to numerous ground force bases and intelligence centers dedicated to special operations and espionage. Among them is Najaf Base, one of the IRGC’s largest bases in western Iran, which housed drones, a ballistic missile base, and espionage and radar centers. All of these were completely destroyed following a U.S.-Israeli missile strike in early March. The IRGC has also established a number of underground “missile cities,” most of them located beneath Kurdish urban areas.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
