Iranian army commander adviser Mojtaba Jafari announced his country's military operations against anti-regime armed groups in northern Iraq. Jafari stated that special forces carried out 14 ground operations in the Sulaymaniyah and Erbil regions.
According to Iranian news site Entekhab, Jafari said in his speech that commando units targeted the positions of opposition groups in these operations. The Iranian official added that many militants were killed and some were taken prisoner in the operations, and that the participating units returned to the country without any casualties.
Jafari did not provide information on when the operations took place. No statement has yet been made by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) regarding the issue.
Tensions in the Region and Iran's Other Operations
Iranian artillery periodically carries out cross-border attacks targeting Kurdish fighters opposed to Tehran in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
Jafari's statements came at a time when Iran has been subjected to attacks by the US and Israel. The US carried out attacks on Iran between July 8 and 24, and Tehran announced that it had struck US military facilities and equipment in Arab countries, notably Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait, in retaliation.
Prior to that, on June 18, Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding and began negotiations for a final agreement, but the talks stalled due to disagreements over navigation safety in the Strait of Hormuz.
On February 28, the US and Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran, and according to Tehran's claim, more than three thousand people lost their lives. Iran also claimed that it struck US and Israeli assets in counterattacks and inflicted losses.
