Iran claims arrest of two PJAK commanders

Iran claims arrest of two PJAK commanders

2011-09-11 06:41:59 GMT+7 (ICT)

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Saturday said nine members of the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) have been arrested, including two commanders of the group, the state-run Press TV reported.

IRGC Brigadier-General Nasser Shabani said the PJAK has received heavy blows during recent operations in the northwestern parts of the country. "Confessions of these individuals will help us to identify the hideouts of the terrorist group and to discover their arms and ammunition storages," he added.

In a statement on September 3, PJAK -- an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- called for a ceasefire with Tehran after sustaining heavy casualties. The ceasefire offer came as members of the PJAK dug new tunnels and built fronts close to Iran's border regions, exploiting the IRGC's ceasefire during the fasting month of Ramadan.

Last Sunday, Iranian authorities said that at least 30 members of the PJAK were killed or injured in northwestern Iran in two days. The IRGC has recently deployed 5,000 military forces in the northwest of the country along its common border with Iraq's Kurdistan, which is often shelled by Iranian forces, forcing hundreds of families to flee the region.

Iran regularly carries out operations against the PJAK, which is fighting to establish semiautonomous regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran, Turkey and Syria. The group has been accused of carrying out a number of attacks in those countries.

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