Iran has deployed artillery and more weaponry to its northwest Kurdish regions, which border Iraq, while it has been increasingly cracking down on the Kurdish Iranian opposition group Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). Recent clashes have been reported in the Shaho mountains and other areas near the border with the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. Millions of Kurds live on both sides of the border. They are part of the large Kurdish community that also lives in Syria and Turkey.
According to the Kurdish media outlet Rudaw, “Iran has deployed artillery and heavy weaponry to Kurdish areas in the west of the country amid growing fears of a wider conflict with Israel and the United States, as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intensifies operations against armed opposition groups along the country’s western and southeastern frontiers.”
Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said that IRGC forces have been moving convoys of forces into the areas of Sanandaj, Kamyaran, Sarvabad, Marivan, and Baneh. This comes as Iran has demanded that Iraq expel Kurdish Iranian opposition groups. Iran’s ambassador to Iraq claimed this week that Baghdad had agreed to do so.
Iran has long demanded Baghdad rein in the Kurdish groups. The regime has also carried out hundreds of attacks on these groups.
In the past week, Iran targeted groups from the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), PDKI, Komala, and Khabat, notably attacking a PAK camp near Mount Harir using drones. The four Kurdish groups, along with PJAK – a left-wing group linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – are all part of a Kurdish Iranian opposition coalition formed at the start of 2026.
Iran views Kurdish opposition groups as potential regional threat
Iran views the Kurds as a potential threat. It has wanted to pre-empt any uprising among the Kurds by essentially spreading the war in Iran to Iraq.
Iran has deep influence in Iraq. Now, with reports circulating that Israel and the US could return to operations against Iran, Tehran appears to be making some new moves ahead of any looming new round of conflict.
Rudaw reported that “an informed source in Kamyaran told the rights network that “hundreds of IRGC special forces, believed to be members of the entity’s Saberin Unit, have been dispatched over the past few weeks in military convoys to areas surrounding villages on the slopes of Mount Shaho in Kamyaran County.”
The situation in the Kurdistan region of Iran is complex. Some Kurds also work with Iran, which has often attempted to recruit Kurds to its units. As such, Rudaw says that the IRGC has also mobilized Kurdish fighters. From the Iranian regime’s point of view, it is preferable to get Kurds to fight one another, not only because Kurds know the terrain but also because any blowback would fall on Kurdish communities, rather than on Tehran.
Iran has also been using drones to attack PJAK forces in Iraq. The group said that drones had been used in the mountainous and forested areas of Marivan “with two suicide drones, followed by more than 30 mortar shells and heavy weapons on Sunday.”