IRGC Deploys Forces, Heavy Weapons Across Iran’s Kurdistan Region

TEHRAN, Oct 22: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has deployed large numbers of troops and military equipment, including heavy and medium weapons, to several areas of the country’s Kurdistan region, the Kordestan Human Rights Network reported Wednesday, citing local sources.

The rights group said military deployments had been reported in Sanandaj, Kamyaran, Sarvabad, Marivan and Baneh, with troops and military convoys arriving from other provinces.

A source in Kamyaran told the network that hundreds of IRGC special forces, believed to belong to its Saberin unit, had been deployed in recent weeks around villages on the slopes of the Shaho mountains. The forces had reportedly established ambush positions after arriving in the area.

Sources in Sanandaj, Sarvabad and Marivan also reported that IRGC reconnaissance forces from the Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada base in Urmia had been transferred to the Guards’ Beit al-Moqaddas base in Sanandaj, according to the network.

The report said the transferred forces participated in artillery shelling and drone attacks last week in the mountainous areas of Shaho and Marivan.

Separately, a source in Baneh told the rights group that an IRGC convoy equipped with artillery had been deployed around the Surin mountain area near the border.

The reported movements indicate an expanded deployment of IRGC forces and military equipment across several areas of Iran’s Kurdistan region. The information was based on accounts provided by local sources to the rights group and could not be independently verified.