Iraq: Kurdish Parties Opposed To Iran Evacuated From Border Region

Kurdish parties opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran have been evacuated from the Iraqi Kurdistan region and northern areas of the country.

The announcement was made by Iraq's Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari in an interview with Al-Arabiya on Saturday.

The Iraqi Prime Minister also emphasized on Saturday that the border with Iran in the Kurdistan region is entirely under the control of Iraqi forces.

Earlier, Iran International had reported that based on the security agreement between Iran and Iraq, many headquarters of Kurdish opposition parties to the Islamic Republic in the Kurdistan region of Iraq have been evacuated.

The headquarters have been detonated by the parties' own forces. According to the informed individuals, the forces that were stationed in border headquarters have now gone to the Iraqi border guard bases and are supposed to be transferred to camps under the supervision of the United Nations.

Local media in the Kurdistan region of Iraq have reported on the permanent deployment of Iraqi border guard forces in these areas and the raising of the Iraqi flag in the locations where the evacuated headquarters of anti-Islamic Republic parties were. The reports also mention the use of thermal cameras by the Iraqi border guard forces to monitor the areas.

The Islamic Republic has long accused the Kurdistan Autonomous Region of Iraq of providing shelter to its opposition groups and claims that the parties use the soil of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq to threaten the security of the Islamic Republic. The Kurdish groups have repeatedly denied the allegations.

In recent years, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has launched missile and artillery attacks on the bases of Kurdish opposition groups multiple times.