Iranian Kurds Step up Military Activities

• 07.08.2016, 21:25
•  Region,  World

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In an unprecedented escalation in the last two decades, Iranian Kurdish rebels have broken a unilateral ceasefire with a series of attacks against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the mountainous Kurdish cities in northwestern Iran. A series of ongoing attacks by Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iran (KDPI) on the Revolutionary Guard, dozens from both sides have been killed, the Daily Beast reports. 

One reason why the KDPI has been stepping up it’s military activities against the Islamic Republic, Mustafa Hijri, the party’s leader, said is that "Iran has been increasingly clamping down on the civic and political activities in the Kurdish area more than elsewhere in Iran" and "Iran has left us no alternative."

The second-in-command of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Hassan Sharafi, told Rudaw Agency that if Tehran follows through with its threats they will switch to full offensive mode.

"What we have done so far has been self-defense, but if the Islamic Republic continues this kind of behavior or tries to act out its threats, we will, without a doubt, go from the defense phase to the next," Sharafi said.