In preparation for confronting Kurdish parties, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has, for more than two months, been working to increase the number of its loyal “Muslim Peshmerga” forces by recruiting members of Kurdish tribes, as revealed by leaders in Iranian Kurdish opposition parties to Alhurra.
These accounts are supported by testimonies from family members of individuals involved in these forces.
“I haven’t been in contact with my son since last March. I don’t know whether he is still alive or has been killed,” says Sarbaz (a pseudonym) to Alhurra. He is the father of one of the “Muslim Peshmerga” members affiliated with the IRGC.
Sarbaz, a resident of the city of Saqqez in northwestern Iran, indicates that his son, in his thirties, joined the local forces known as the “Muslim Peshmerga” through a friend at the beginning of last January in exchange for a salary, following the lack of job opportunities and the deepening economic crisis in Iran.
Sarbaz expresses concern about his son’s fate after most IRGC bases in Iranian Kurdistan were subjected to U.S.-Israeli strikes over 40 days of war that began on February 28, given that these bases host the headquarters of the “Muslim Peshmerga.”
“After the strikes that hit IRGC bases in Saqqez, Marivan, and Kermanshah, I tried along with other families of those who joined the local forces to find out the fate of our sons, but we received no response from the IRGC leadership. They only told us that our sons are fine, but I don’t trust them, and I have not been able to obtain any information about him so far,” Sarbaz adds.
Origin and Structure of the “Muslim Peshmerga”
The “Muslim Peshmerga” are local forces affiliated with the IRGC. The Guard established them in 1979 in Kermanshah province and included, alongside its loyalists, Kurds opposed to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties from various cities in Iranian Kurdistan.
The goal of their establishment was to confront Kurdish parties militarily and security-wise. The IRGC has used members of these forces in its operations against Kurds in Kurdish areas.
Special information obtained by Alhurra from senior leaders in Iranian Kurdish opposition parties indicates that the IRGC, since the beginning of this year, has resumed work on its previous project of recruiting the largest possible number of Kurdish young men into these loyal forces. It has intensified recruitment with the outbreak of the war, especially after losing many of its commanders and personnel in airstrikes. It is therefore seeking to replenish its ranks with local fighters across most regions, focusing on deploying them along the borders and inside cities to help control internal conditions and thwart any attempts at a popular uprising against the regime.
According to the same sources, the IRGC has distributed the “Muslim Peshmerga” among three of its corps. The first is the Hamzeh Sayyed al-Shuhada Corps, also known as Hamzeh Headquarters, located in the city of Urmia in northwestern Iran. It is tasked with confronting Iranian Kurdish opposition parties, attacking them, and monitoring their movements in Iranian Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The second corps is Beit al-Maqdis (Jerusalem’s holy mosque), headquartered in Sanandaj province. It is also tasked with confronting the Peshmerga forces of Kurdish parties and has participated in launching missile and drone attacks against the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish parties in the Kurdistan Region in recent years.
The third corps, according to the sources, is the Nabi Akram Corps, headquartered in Kermanshah province, which oversees IRGC operations against Kurdish parties in the provinces of Kermanshah and Ilam in Iranian Kurdistan.
Within the IRGC corps, members of the “Muslim Peshmerga” are divided into three groups: a special force tasked with ground combat, another integrated with the Basij forces specializing in internal affairs and confronting protests and internal movements, and a third group dedicated to intelligence work, espionage, and gathering information on Kurdish opposition parties and attacking them inside and outside Iran, as confirmed by the same sources.
Recruitment, Roles, and Incentives
According to information from Kurdish leaders, members of the Kurdish forces loyal to the IRGC have played a prominent role in missile and drone attacks that have continuously targeted the headquarters and camps of these parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq since last February.
The official spokesperson of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, Khalil Naderi, confirms that the IRGC is working to recruit and arm Kurds and other peoples in Iran. In March, it issued a call urging Iranians to volunteer and take up arms.
“A segment of Kurdish tribes responded to the regime’s call and joined these forces. Some of those who joined are loyal to the regime, others joined out of fear, and others for the salaries. Unfortunately, there are still those who cooperate with this regime, whether by carrying weapons or working with it as spies,” Naderi told Alhurra.
Naderi points out that the IRGC arms recruits in these forces with light and medium weapons, but the weapons they are always allowed to carry—even when returning home—are Kalashnikov rifles.
“The goal of recruiting more Kurdish civilians into these forces is to use them to defend the regime from collapse if Iran is subjected to ground attacks by the United States and Israel, and also to use them to confront the Peshmerga forces of Kurdish parties,” Naderi continues.
Naderi believes that the Iranian authorities want to show the world that they still enjoy popular support and have sufficient forces for war, but he stresses that these forces will not be able to protect the regime from collapse and will not withstand the United States and Israel.
According to Naderi’s information, based on the party’s networks and units within Iranian Kurdistan, those officially appointed by the regime to these forces receive approximately $300 per month, equivalent to 48 million Iranian tomans. Volunteers receive less, and some have not yet received any salaries at all, apart from the rifles distributed to them.
Threats and Counter-Narratives
At the beginning of this April, Abbas Mohammadi, commander of the “Muslim Peshmerga,” issued a video message published by the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency on the platform X, in which he threatened Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region and vowed to confront any movements by their Peshmerga forces if they attempted to cross the border and enter cities in Iranian Kurdistan.
The head of the opposition Kurdistan Freedom Party, Aref Bajawani, considers the Iranian regime’s claims of enjoying broad popular support among Kurds and the rallying of millions around it ready to defend it to be displays preceding collapse. He notes that the Islamic Republic of Iran is facing frustration and failure across all sectors.
“The number of those who have joined the forces formed by the regime in Iranian Kurdistan is very small, not reaching even 1% of the Kurdish population in Iran. These individuals declared their allegiance to the IRGC decades ago and remain with it. Therefore, the IRGC’s announcement of large numbers of Kurdish tribes joining its ranks is not accurate,” Bajawani told Alhurra.
Bajawani points out that the IRGC occasionally broadcasts video clips and statements of these fighters through Iranian media, where some appear fully masked, declaring their support for the Guard and readiness to fight in defense of the regime, claiming affiliation with various Kurdish tribes. However, these individuals are unknown and unidentified, and Kurdish tribes disavow them, according to Bajawani.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
