TEHRAN -- A commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Iran has already asked Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region to dismantle terrorist groups and hand over terrorists to the Islamic Republic.
“We have compiled clear files about terrorists hosted by the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and we have called for their extradition to Iran,” the commander of Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada Base, Brigadier General Muhammad Taqi Osanlou, told Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen.
If authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan hand over these “wanted terrorists” to Iran as soon as possible, the security situation will improve, he added.
The remarks come as the IRGC has on numerous occasions targeted the positions of terrorist groups operating near the country’s western borders in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. The latest of such attacks was reported on November 14.
Osanlou said that some 23 meetings have been held with Iraqi officials to solve the issue diplomatically, stressing that Iran has highlighted the need to push away terrorist groups from its borders.
Borders in the west of the country
are under the constant watch of Iranian armed forces, he said, adding, “Unfortunately, there are some movements in Iraqi borders that lead to instability.”
Iran has already asked the Iraqi Kurdistan to dismantle terrorist groups but “no cooperation has yet been offered on the issue,” added the commander.
Pointing to the IRGC’s powerful intelligence surveillance over the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, he said the military force was well capable of targeting a leader of the terrorist group but refrained from doing so because he was being accompanied by his family.
The IRGC also managed to target a terrorist leader who was injured and transferred to a hospital in Erbil, the provincial capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, he said.
“We can reach terrorist groups wherever they are,” he said, noting that the IRGC could target houses that host terrorists.