“Fire” in Shahu Mountains of Kurdistan “During Revolutionary Guards Maneuver”
Concurrent with reports about the end of the Revolutionary Guards Ground Forces maneuver in the mountainous Shahu region of Kurdistan Province, some websites have reported vegetation fires in the area as a result of this exercise.
According to IRIB news agency, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Ground Forces announced on Sunday, October 6, that “Moharam Exercise” in the Shahu region of Kamyaran city ended after one week.
Mohammad Pakpour said that the Shahu region in Kamyaran is “a geographically complex area that has always been a hotbed” of armed groups opposed to the Islamic Republic.
According to Pakpour, in past years and with the aim of countering these groups in the region, “various military posts” have been established.
Since last week, videos of military equipment deployment to the Shahu region have been published on social media.
Meanwhile, some websites including “Kurdpa” have reported that this exercise “caused widespread fires in the region and caused significant damage to its pastures.”
The “Kurdistan Human Rights Network” website also wrote on October 4 that Revolutionary Guards forces “do not allow environmental activists to be sent to these areas to extinguish the fires.”
However, Mohammad Hossein Rejabi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Kurdistan, had said that the maneuver area “has no vegetation and is only rock and stone.”
The Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian Army have conducted exercises in western Iranian provinces in recent years.
On September 8, the Revolutionary Guards targeted the Democratic Party of Kurdistan headquarters led by Mustafa Moloudi in Iraq with missile strikes, which according to reports killed 14 people and wounded at least 40.
Iraq called this action a “violation of its sovereignty.”
A week earlier, the Democratic Party of Kurdistan Iran, led by Mustafa Hajri, reported an attack by a “drone” of the Islamic Republic’s military forces on the party’s forces in “Kodo Mountains” in the Iran-Iraq border region.
Since 2016, after armed Kurdish parties opposed to the Islamic Republic increased their activities in Kurdistan Province, clashes between these parties’ forces and the Revolutionary Guards intensified.
The Islamic Republic refers to its armed opposition groups in western Iranian provinces, including armed Kurdish parties, as “terrorist groups” or “counter-revolutionary.” However, these groups claim their goal in armed confrontation with the Islamic Republic is “defending Kurdish rights.”
Source: Radio Farda
