Iran urges Iraq to ensure security along common borders

Tehran, Nov 15 (IANS) Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) called on officials from the Iraqi government to fulfill their commitments to upholding the good neighbourliness principles and ensuring the security of the two countries’ common borders.

Border and internal security are Iran’s red lines, the IRGC said in a statement late Monday after targeting the positions of “terrorist groups” in Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in a large-scale military operation earlier in the day.

In the statement, the IRGC accused officials from Iraq’s Kurdistan region of being negligent in responding to the activities of the anti-Tehran “separatist terrorist groups,” which have been based in the region for years to conspire and carry out attacks against Iran, reports Xinhua news agency.

Those “terrorists” have again started to undermine Iran’s security, the statement said, adding the IRGC’s Ground Force on Monday launched missile and drone attacks against their positions, centers and pathways for transferring weapons and ammunition to Iran.

According to the statement, the military actions were conducted after repeated warnings to officials of the Kurdistan region about the need for disarming “terrorist groups” and expelling them from the area went unanswered by any concrete or visible actions on Iraq’s part.

Commenting on the attack, Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the IRGC Ground Force, said the Iranian forces only targeted those “terrorist groups'” positions that were not close to areas inhabited by civilians.

The positions were targeted by missiles and suicide combat drones, he said, adding that artillery attacks were carried out to pound positions in border areas.

–IANS

ksk/