Iranian commander warns Iraqi Kurdish government about harboring opposition

The IRGC's rare warning has fueled fears about civilian casualties in the Kurdish villages stretching on the Iran-Iraq border. 
An Iranian Kurdish peshmerga member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) sprays red paint on holes in a wall made by shrapnel from a rocket attack days earlier.
An Iranian Kurdish peshmerga member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) sprays red paint on holes in a wall made by shrapnel from a rocket attack days earlier at the party's headquarters in Koysinjaq, 100 kilometers east of the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, Erbil, on Sept. 12, 2018, carried out by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. - SAFIN HAMED/AFP via Getty Images
Al Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Al-Monitor Staff

The commander of the Ground Forces of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of a "decisive and harsh response" against Kurdish fighters based in the semi-autonomous Kurdish territory.

"The current situation is no longer tolerable," said Gen. Mohammad Pakpour in reference to a recent uptick in border clashes between Iraq-based Iranian Kurdish opposition and IRGC forces on the rugged border.

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