1 October 2011The counter-revolutionary group PJAK (the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) has surrendered and retreated from the heights near Sardasht, West Azarbaijan Province, an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commander has announced.
“Last week, the (members of the) group held up (their) hands in ignominy as a sign of surrender,” and retreated from the heights of Jasosan, Brigadier General Abdollah Araqi said in Qom on Thursday, the Fars News Agency reported.
They “finally held up their hands and asked what our conditions are, and we said that you should retreat one kilometer away from Iran’s border,” he stated.
“As the second condition, we announced that you have no right to take military actions in our country,” Araqi added.
“We also warned them that they have no right to recruit members from our forces and people,” he said.
They accepted the conditions that the Islamic Republic set out and retreated, and military forces have now gained full control of the area, the general stated.
He also said that if such operations had been publicized sooner, security forces could not have carried out surprise attacks on PJAK.
He added that military forces killed over 180 and wounded more than 300 PJAK members during the recent operations.
The PJAK group was established in 2003. Its camps and bases are mostly located in Iraq, near the border with Iran. PJAK uses Iraqi Kurdistan’s soil as a safe haven for organizing its terrorist actions against the Islamic Republic.
On July 11, after the escalation of PJAK’s terrorist actions in northwestern Iran, a high-ranking Iranian military official criticized Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government for failing to halt the PJAK terrorists’ activities in Iraq and said that Iran reserves the right to attack and destroy PJAK’s camps and bases inside Iraq.
Later, IRGC forces mounted a large-scale offensive against PJAK and killed, wounded, and arrested dozens of terrorists.
They also destroyed and captured the largest compound of PJAK on Iran-Iraq border, near the city of Sardasht.
However, Iran scaled down the fight against PJAK during the holy month of Ramadan.
On September 13, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the IRGC deputy commander, said that PJAK could be granted Islamic clemency if they abandon their armed struggle against the Islamic Republic.
On September 21, the IRGC announced that it has restored complete control over northwestern borders after clearing PJAK terrorists out of the region.
On September 26, Brigadier General Hossein Zolfaqari, the commander of National Border Police, said that PJAK has stopped conducting terrorist activities in northwest Iran.
“Sepah (the IRGC), in cooperation with the National Border Police, has managed to keep PJAK terrorists’ activities under control,” Zolfaqari stated.
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