Iran–PJAK conflict

The Iran–PJAK conflict, or Iran-Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan conflict is an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the ethnic secessionist Kurdish guerrilla group Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), which began in 2004. The group had been carrying out attacks in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and other Kurdish-inhabited areas, and is closely affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party operating against Turkey. Following large clashes in summer 2011, a cease-fire was declared between the parties, with Iran claiming victory and PJAK ending all armed operations as of 29 September 2011. Since then, several violent incidents have occurred, including the Baneh clash in December 2011 and another clash in April 2012. In 2013, confrontations renewed, including clashes in May 2013, August battle in Sardasht border area and more events in October.

In line with the Turkish PKK's goals, PJAK leaders say their long-term goals are to establish an autonomous Kurdish region within the Iranian state. It is mainly focused on replacing Iran's theocracy with a democratic and federal government, where self-rule is granted to all ethnic minorities of Iran, including Sunni, Arabs, Azeris, and Kurds. Many however refer to PJAK as a strictly separatist organization, pursuing a complete disengagement of the Kurdish regions from Iran and alliance with neighbouring Kurdish regions in Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

Background
Since the Iranian Revolution, there has been an ongoing conflict between Iran’s central government and Kurdish political movements rooted in the predominantly Kurdish region of western Iran. The level of violence has ebbed and flowed with peaks of serious conflict in 1979, the early eighties and the early nineties.

Kurdish casualties are estimated by the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI)) at more than 30,000 civilian dead in addition to 4,000 Kurdish fighters. Along with the dead, there have been tens of thousands of people imprisoned; hundreds of villages destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. The local economy of an already under-developed region has been severely damaged by the conflict, as of course has the Iranian economy as a whole.

Founding of PJAK
The exact history of PJAK is widely disputed. Turkey and Iran claim that PJAK is no more than an off-shoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). According to some sources, members of the PKK founded the PJAK in 2004 as an Iranian equivalent to their leftist-nationalist insurgency against the Turkish government.

According to founding members of PJAK, however, the group began in Iran around 1997 as an entirely peaceful student-based human rights movement. The group was inspired by the success of Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region and by the PKK's struggle in Turkey. Discouraged by the failure of previous Kurdish revolts, however, PJAK's leaders initially worked only to maintain and build a Kurdish national identity and to thwart the Iranian government's attempts to re-brand Iranian Kurds as ethnic Persians or Aryans. After a series of government crackdowns against Kurdish activists and intellectuals, the group's leadership moved to the safety of Iraqi Kurdistan in 1999. There they settled in the area controlled by the PKK on the slopes of Mount Qandil—less than 10 miles from the Iranian border. Once established at Qandil and operating under the PKK's security umbrella, PJAK adopted many of the political ideas and military strategies of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose theories had initially inspired PJAK's founders while still in Iran. The PKK's ideological influence also transformed PJAK from a civil rights movement to a more ambitious and multi-directional independence movement, aided by the transfer of many seasoned PKK fighters of Iranian origin into PJAK.

Abductions of Iranian security forces
PJAK's leaders have twice kidnapped groups of Iranian soldiers in 2003 and 2004. In both instances Iranian soldiers were released unharmed after being tried and acquitted for "crimes against the Kurdish people" by ad hoc PJAK courts in Iranian Kurdistan.

2004
The PJAK group's first armed attack took place in 2004 in the Meriwan region of Iranian Kurdistan, after Iranian security forces fired on a Kurdish demonstration killing 10 people.

2005
Istanbul's Cihan News Agency claimed that over 100 members of the Iranian security forces were killed by PJAK during 2005.

2006
In February 2006, 10 Kurdish demonstrators were killed by police in the city of Maku. PJAK responded with three attacks against two Iranian bases. PJAK killed 24 members of Iranian security forces on April 3, 2006 in a raid, performed in retaliation for the killing of 10 Kurds demonstrating in Maku by Iranian security forces. On April 10, 2006, seven PJAK members were arrested in Iran, on suspicion that they killed three Iranian security force personnel. Shortly afterward, on April 21, and again a week later, Iranian troops fired nearly 100 artillery shells at PJAK positions near Mount Qandil and briefly crossed the Iraqi border, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. The Iranian attack is believed to have killed no more than 10 PJAK fighters.

PJAK set off a bomb on 8 May 2006 in Kermanshah, wounding five people at a government building. Since those events, the US news channel MSNBC claimed that the Iranian military begun bombardments of Kurdish villages in US-occupied Iraq along the Iranian border while claiming that their primary targets were PJAK militants. A number of civilians died. PJAK troops killed four Iranian soldiers on May 27, in a clash near the town of Mako in Iranian Kurdistan, the PKK's Roj TV reported.

On September 5, 2006 it was reported that Iranian forces engaged PJAK near Sardasht, killing more than 30 and injuring 40 Kurdish militants.

On September 28, 2006, Iran said that two members of the PKK (which Iran regularly confuses with the closely affiliated PJAK) blew up a gas pipeline to Turkey near the town of Bazargan in West Azerbaijan province.

2007
On February 24, 2007 an Iranian helicopter crashed near the town of Khoy, killing 13 soldiers, including several members of the elite Revolutionary Guards and Said Qahari, the head of the Iranian army's 3rd Corps. PJAK quickly claimed to have shot down the helicopter using a shoulder-launched missile, killing 20 soldiers, including several senior officers, during an hour-long battle. Iran, however, blamed the crash on bad weather. After that, Iran launched a counter-offensive against the group in the northeast of Iran's West Azerbaijan province, near the Turkish border. According to Iran's state news agencies as many as 47 Kurdish rebels and 17 Iranian soldiers were killed in the violence between February 25 and March 1, 2007.

In August 2007, PJAK claimed it managed to down another Iranian military helicopter that was conducting a forward operation of bombardment by Iranian forces.

According to Kurdish officials, Iranian troops raided northern Iraq on August 23, 2007, attacking several villages.

2008
The Iranian news agency IRNA reported on October 11, 2008 that members of the Iranian religious militia Basij killed four Kurdish guerrillas in a clash close to the Iraqi border.

In August 2008, under Iranian pressure, one of Iraqi Kurdistan's ruling parties, the PUK, launched an offensive against PJAK forces. KDP-leader and President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani condmened PJAK operations against Iran multiple times.

According to West Azerbaijan provincial police commander Brigadier Hassan Karami his forces clashed with PJAK 65 times, killing 13 PJAK fighters and injuring 24 from April to November 2008. According to Brigadier Karimi this marked a 13 percent decline in PJAK attacks.

On November 10, 2008, PJAK announced it had halted all operations in Iran and would start fighting the Turkish military.

2009
On April 24, 2009, PJAK rebels attacked a police station in Kermanshah province. According to updated reports 18 policemen and 8 rebels were killed in a fierce gun battle. According to Iranian government sources, the attack resulted in 10 policemen and 10 rebels killed. According to Hiedelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, the attack, which occurred on April 24 and 25, involved PJAK attacks on two police stations in the cities of Ravansar in northern Kermanshah province and in Sanandaj, the capital of Kordestan province, killing eleven police ofﬁcers, with more than ten PJAK members reportedly killed.

Iran responded a week later by attacking Kurdish villages in the border area of Panjwin inside Iraq using helicopter gunships. According to Iraqi border guards officials, the area attacked by Iran was not considered a stronghold of PJAK, that appeared to have been the target of the raid. According to the ICRC, more than 800 Iraqi Kurds have been forced from their homes by the recent cross-border violence.

2010
In 2010, PJAK claimed responsibility for the deaths of 3 IRGC soldiers in Khoy. Earlier in the year Iranian police arrested a suspect in the killing of a prosecutor in the same region during clashes with "Kurdish militants."

2011
On March 24, two Iranian police officers were killed and three others injured in two attacks in the city of Sanandaj in Kurdistan Province and on April 1 four border guards were killed and three others were wounded in an attack against a police station near the city of Marivan. On April 4, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the perpetrators of the previous attacks in Sanandaj were killed.

Two Kurdish guerillas affiliated to PJAK were reported to had been killed and another wounded by the IRIB TV website on June 19, 2011, in Iran's northwestern town of Chaldran in West Azerbajan province.

On 16 July 2011 the Iranian army launched a major offensive against PJAK compounds in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq. On July 17, the IRGC killed at last five PJAK members in a raid that destroyed one of the group's headquarters in northwestern Iran. PJAK claimed 21 Iranian soldiers were killed in the clashes. Iranian authorities on the other hand confirmed their casualties at 1 killed and 3 injured while claiming to have inflicted "heavy losses" on the rebels. They announced that they had captured three rebel bases, one of which was identified as Marvan and was said to be the leading PJAK camp in the region.

On July 20, PJAK killed 5 IRGC members and one IRGC commander while IRGC forces killed 35 PJAK fighters and captured several others during clashes on July 25. By July 26, more than 50 PJAK fighters and 8 Revolutionary Guards had been killed, and at least 100 PJAK fighters had been wounded according to Iranian sources, while over 800 people had been displaced by the fighting. At least 3 civilians were killed. During clashes in the Jasosan and Alotan heights the next day, Iranian forces claimed to have killed over 21 PJAK fighters, confirming that two IRGC forces had been killed and two had been injured during the clashes.

On July 29, suspected PJAK militants blew up the Iran-Turkey gas pipeline, which was repaired the next day. On August 1, Iranian forces killed 3 and arrested 4 of the militants said to be responsible for the attack, at least one of which was a Turkish citizen.

On August 5, the leader of Party of free Life for Kurdistan, Rahman Haj Ahmedi, said to Newsmax that more than 300 Iranian Revolutionary Guards had been killed in a series of ambushes, while acknowledging 16 loses. Iranian officials however, claimed to have killed over 150 PJAK forces during the operations, confirming the deaths of only 17 Revolutionary Guards.

On August 8, 2011, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, the leader of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, said the armed rebel group is prepared to negotiate with Iran and maintained that Kurdish issues need to be solved through “peaceful means”. In an exclusive interview with Rudaw, Haji Ahmadi acknowledged that in some cases compromise is inevitable and indicated that PJAK is willing to lay down its arms. He said fighting may not help Kurds secure political and cultural rights in Iran.

On August 8, 2011, Murat Karayılan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said they withdrew all PJAK fighters out of Iran and sent them to PKK camps in the Qandil mountains. He said they replaced PJAK forces on the Iranian border with PKK forces to prevent further clashes and called on Iran to end attacks because unlike the PJAK, the PKK was not at war with Iran. Karayılan released the following statement: “As the PKK, we have not declared any war against Iran. We do not wish to fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran either. Why? Because one of the aims of the international forces who seek to re-design the region is to besiege Iran. Currently, they are more preoccupied with Syria. If they just manage to work things out there as they wish, it will be Iran’s turn next. As Kurds, we do not think it quite right to be involved in a war with Iran at such a stage. You have no interest in targeting the PKK ... You must end this conflict. It is America that wants this conflict to go on. Because these attacks of yours serve America’s interests. They want both the PKK and Iran to grow weaker.”

On September 5, 2011, the IRGC rejected the cease-fire declared by the Kurdish rebel group PJAK, as meaningless, as long as PJAK forces remained on the borders of the Islamic Republic. Iran also said its troops had killed 30 PJAK fighters and wounded 40 in several days of fighting.

The battle ended inconclusively and on September 12, the cease fire was restored. Iranian official propaganda claimed to have captured three PJAK camps and to have destroyed PJAK’s military capability. The organization dismissed this, asserting that its fighters had defeated an Iranian attempt to seize the Qandil area.

On September 29, 2011, Iranian sources reported PJAK had officially surrendered after 180 deaths and 300 injured. According to another Iranian source, Iranian ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaei-Far declared that they had cleared all areas of PJAK activities and that they had reached an agreement with the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, in which they vowed to keep the border peaceful. According to Farsnews, IRGC ground commander General Abdollah Araqi declared that the conflict had ended after PJAK had accepted Iran's terms and withdrawn all its forces from Iranian soil.

In late October 2011, President of Iraqi Kurdistan Massoud Barzani said in a visit to Tehran that an agreement had been reached between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the PJAK, in which the PJAK had agreed to end its armed activities in the region and that the borders between Iran and the Kurdistan Region would now be safe.

On December 28, 2011, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps clashed with PJAK forces in Baneh in northwest Iran. PJAK reported that it was attacked by Iranian government forces, which led to the death of nine government officials; PJAK says it sustained no casualties. The Fars news agency, which is close to the IRGC, confirmed that a member of Basij, an IRGC sub-group, was killed in the conflict, adding that several PJAK members were wounded.

2012
On early January, "Gloria Center" of the IDC published that despite the claims of the Iranians to have destroyed PJAK, the organization has survived the assault. PJAK was reported to be engaged in the construction of new defensive positions close to the border. On January 4, it was reported that the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) of Iran said Islamic Republic forces have violated the terms of the ceasefire between the two sides, relating to the Baneh clash, a week earlier.

On April 25, 2012, in a clash near Paveh, in Kermanshah province of Iran, 4 IRGC officers were killed and 4 others wounded. Casualties were also inflicted to PJAK, but there were no estimations available.

While the open Iran–PJAK conflict largely stalled after the Paveh clash, according to a Kurdish website at least 33 Kurds have been shot by the Revolutionary Guard in different cities in Iranian Kurdistan since the end of March 2012. Out of the 33 Kurds who have been shot at by the Guard, 21 have died and 12 have been injured seriously.

2013
During February 2013, 3 Iranian IRGC soldiers died is separate clashes with PJAK.

A number of clashes between PJAK and IRGC took place also in May 2013, with at least 2 Iranian soldiers killed. On early August, the Iran-based Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) announced that it is "ready to send fighters to Syrian Kurdistan to fight beside their people." On August 19, a battle erupted in the Sardasht border area between IRGC and PJAK, in which PJAK claimed to kill 7 Iranian soldiers and loose 2 fighters; Iran didn't comment on the event. In October 5 more IRGC affiliated militia men were killed in Iranian Kordestan.

Warfare tactics
PJAK has adopted hit-and-run assault tactics against Iranian forces, carrying them out with small arms and grenades. Afterward, PJAK fighters may either melt back into Iranian society or re-cross the border into Iraqi Kurdistan. PJAK is believed to have some heavier weaponry in its Mount Qandil camp such as RPGs and heavy machine-guns.

Foreign involvement
PJAK's military operations are believed to be funded by Kurdish immigrant communities in Europe and Kurdish businessmen in Iran. Despite Iranian accusations, there is no evidence of any foreign funding.

Relation to United States government and military structures
On April 18, 2006, US Congressman Dennis Kucinich sent a letter to US president George W. Bush in which he expressed his judgment that the US is likely to be supporting and coordinating PJAK, since PJAK operates and is based in Iraqi territory, which is under the control of the U.S. supported Kurdistan Regional Government.

In November 2006, journalist Seymour Hersh writing in The New Yorker, supported this claim, stating that the US military and the Israelis are giving the group equipment, training, and targeting information in order to cause destruction in Iran.

This is denied officially by both the US and PJAK. In an interview with Slate magazine in June 2006, when PJAK spokesman Ihsan Warya was paraphrased as stating that he "nevertheless points out that PJAK really does wish it were an agent of the United States, and that [PJAK is] disappointed that Washington hasn't made contact." The Slate article continues stating that the PJAK wishes to be supported by and work with the United States in overthrowing the government of Iran in a similar way to the US eventually cooperated with Kurdish organisations in Iraq in overthrowing the government of Iraq during the most recent Iraq war.

In August 2007, the leader of PJAK visited Washington, DC in order to seek more open support from the US both politically and militarily, but it was later said that he only made limited contacts with officials in Washington. One of the top officials in the PKK made a statement in late 2006, that "If the US is interested in PJAK, then it has to be interested in the PKK as well" referring to the alliance between the two groups and their memberships in the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (KCK).

Uppsala count
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program recorded 434 fatalities (ranging from 429 to 673) in the Iran–PJAK conflict from 2005 until 2011. These figures however do not include casualties from the year 2010.

News reports summary
According to numerous news reports from 2004 to present, casualties range between 636 and 871; these figures are a mix of PJAK claims, Iranian government claims and third party confirmed deaths.

2004 casualties: 10+
 * 2004 clashes - 10 Kurdish demonstrators killed, unknown number of Iranian security forces killed in retaliation by PJAK (first PJAK armed attack).

2005 casualties: 100-120 During 2005, some 100-120 Iranian security forces killed, according to PJAK claims; unknown PJAK casualties.

2006 casualties: 80+ killed
 * February 2006 Maku demonstrations - 10 Kurdish protesters killed.
 * April 2006 Iran raids by PJAK - 26 killed.
 * April 2006 Iraq raids by Iran - 10 militants killed.
 * May 2006 Kermanshah bombing - five wounded.
 * 27 May 2006 - 4 Iranian security forces killed in a clash near Mako.
 * September 2006 Sardasht incident - 30+ PJAK killed and 40 injured, unknown Iranian casualties (Iranian claim).

2007 casualties: 102-114+ killed
 * 2007 West Azerbaijan offensive - 89-101 killed.
 * 2007 Iraq raid - unknown.
 * 2008 West Azerbaijan clashes - 13 PJAK militants killed, 24 wounded (Iranian claim).

2008 casualties: 28-100 killed
 * 25 May-02 June clashes - 8 PJAK militants killed; 92 Iranian soldiers and para-militaries killed (PJAK claim). 21 PJAK and 7 IRGC killed (Iranian claim)

2009 casualties: 20-26 killed
 * Ravansar and Sanandaj police station attacks (2009) - 20-26 killed.

2010 casualties: 45 killed
 * Mahabad bombing - 12 killed.
 * 2010 Khoy incident - 3 IRGC members killed.
 * 2010 Iraq raid - 30 militants killed.

2011 casualties: 223-344 killed
 * March 2011 Sanandaj attacks - 2 -3 Iranian police killed, 3 -5 wounded; unknown number of PJAK also killed in retaliation.
 * April 1, 2011 Marivan attack - 4 IRGC killed.
 * June 2011 Chaldran clash - 2 militants killed, 1 wounded.
 * 2011 cross-border raids (16 July-5 September) - 210-326 killed.
 * December 2011 Baneh clash - between 1 to 9 IRGC killed, between none to 4 PJAK militants killed. Total: 5-9 killed.

2012 casualties: 4-8 killed
 * April 25, 2012 - in Paveh (Kermanshah province), 4 IRGC officers were killed and 4 others wounded; unknown casualties to PJAK.

2013 casualties: 24 killed.
 * February 2013 - 3 IRGC killed in an incident.
 * 19 May 2013 - 2 Iranian soldiers killed (Iranian statement).
 * August 14 - 4 IRGC guards killed and 3 wounded during mine dismantlement in Kordestan province.
 * 19 August 2013 - 7 Iranian soldiers and two PJAK militants killed in Sardash border clash (PJAK claim).
 * October 10 - 5 IRGC killed in Kordestan province.