Iran deploying troops, tanks to Kurdistan border

[Aslan]

BAGHDAD — Iran is building up military forces along the border
of neighboring Kurdistan.

Officials said the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has amassed
thousands of troops as well as main battle tanks and armored personnel
carriers along the border with Iraq.

They said IRGC, supported by the Army, appeared to be preparing for an operation against Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan.

“Iran is establishing a permanent military presence so it could attack Kurdistan at will,” an official said.
Officials said IRGC was also constructing bases and other military installations along the Iraqi border. They said the target was the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan, the Iranian wing of the Kurdish Workers Party.

In 2012, PJAK reached a ceasefire with Iran in wake of its military invasion of Kurdistan. Officials said IRGC was assessed as having failed to destroy PJAK headquarters in the Kandil mountains of Iraq.

Officials said PJAK was bracing for another Iranian offensive. They said
PJAK, which could shell deep into Iran, was supported by the Kurdish
Regional Government in defending northern Iraq.

“The Kurds are much stronger than they were a year ago,” the official
said.