The Kurdistan Free Life Party, or PJAK, is a Kurdish leftist anti-Islamic Republic of Iran armed militant group. It has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian regime, seeking self-determination through some degree of autonomy for Kurds in Iran.
Operation Forough Javidan and Operation Mersad were among the last major military operations of the Iran–Iraq War.
The Iran–PJAK conflict is an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which began in 2004. The group has carried out numerous attacks in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and provinces of Western Iran. PJAK is closely affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the primary opponent of the Republic of Turkey in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. PJAK has been designated as a terrorist organization by Iran, Japan, Turkey, and the United States.
This is the timeline of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The Kurdish insurgency is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which was founded on November 27, 1978, and started a full-scale insurgency on August 15, 1984, when it declared a Kurdish uprising. Apart from some extended ceasefires, the conflict has continued to the present day.
On August 17, 2011, the Turkish Armed Forces launched multiple raids against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) camps based in Iraq, striking 132 targets. Turkish military bombed PKK targets in northern Iraq in six days of air raids, according to General Staff.
2011 Iran–Iraq cross-border raids were a series of operations, performed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), against the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), a Kurdish rebel group. The operations began in July 2011, and included attacks on PJAK bases in Iranian territory, penetration into Iraqi Kurdistan territory, bombing of PJAK associated bases and villages in Kurdish controlled Iraqi areas and direct targeting of Kurdish guerrilla command in Qandil mountains. The clashes resulted in dozens killed and wounded on both sides, with hundreds of displaced Kurdish villagers. The exact numbers of casualties on each side are a matter of controversy.
April 2006 Iran–Iraq cross-border raids were three military cross-border attacks on Iran-Iraqi Kurdistan border, in which PJAK claimed to had killed 24 members of Iranian security forces in early April, 2006. The raids were motivated as 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 a suspicion that they had killed three Iranian security force personnel.
2007 West Azerbaijan clashes were a series of armed clashes between Iranian security forces and the Kurdish insurgent group PJAK in Iran's West Azerbaijan province. It started with a series of clashes between Iran and the PKK, leading to the death of 17 PKK militants between February 22 and February 24 by Iranian forces. This was followed by an Iranian helicopter crash in Khoy, an incident which was claimed to be performed by PJAK, though denied by Iranians as technical malfunction. The Iranian military launched an offensive the next day which resulted in the death of 47 insurgents and 17 security forces and lasted until March 1.
Majid Kavian, also known as Semko Sarheldan was the deputy commander of the militant Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) until his death on 3 September 2011, at the age of 29. As the number two in command he was the chief commander of all PJAK's armed activities as the PJAK's number one leader, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi lives in exile, in Germany.
Kurdish separatism in Iran or the Kurdish–Iranian conflict is an ongoing, long-running, separatist dispute between the Kurdish opposition in Western Iran and the governments of Iran, lasting since the emergence of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1918.
The 1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran was one of the largest nationwide uprisings in the country against the new state following the Iranian Revolution. The Kurdish rebellion began in mid-March, just two months after the Revolution ended, and was one of the most intense Kurdish rebellions in modern Iran.
Ravansar and Sanandaj police station attacks were staged by PJAK militants on April 24 and 25, 2009, targeting Iranian police stations in Ravansar, Kermanshah province and Sanandaj, Kordestan province. The attacks, considered among the most costly for Iranian security forces, resulted in 20 to 26 killed, including at least 10 police officers.
The insurgency by the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran surged in 1989, lasting until 1996, as part of the Kurdish separatism struggle. The eruption of the conflict in July 1989 was caused by the assassination of KDPI leader Abdul Rahman Qassemlou by suspected Iranian government agents. The most violent episodes took place in 1990 and 1991, when Kurdish soldiers launched massive attacks on Iranian military bases in Kurdish areas of Iran. This brought heavy retaliation from the Iranian government, aiming to eradicate the KDPI leadership by assassinating Sadegh Sharafkandi and other KDPI leaders in 1992 in order to disable the Kurdish party's ability to function. The conflict faded with the effective targeted assassination policy of Iran and by 1996 KDPI was no longer able to function militarily and announced a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict claimed hundreds of lives, mostly Iranian government troops and Kurdish militants.
August 2013 Sardasht clash was a military confrontation on August 22 between Iranian security forces belonging to the Basij, the paramilitary branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) militants. The event is a part of the Iran-PJAK conflict, lasting from 2004, and despite the cease-fire of September 2011, producing more violence. Since the cease-fire in September 2011, when Iran declared to have destroyed the PJAK, several more armed confrontations followed including December 2011 clash in Baneh, April 2012 battle, May 2013 clashes and this most recent Sardasht incident.
The Iranian intervention in Iraq has its roots in the post-2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and allies when the infrastructure of the Iraqi armed forces, as well as intelligence, were disbanded in a process called "de-Ba'athification" which allowed militias with close ties to Tehran to join the newly reconstituted army.
Jaish ul-Adl, or Jaish al-Adl, is a Sunni militant and Baluchi separatist organization that operates mainly in southeastern Iran, where there is a substantial concentration of Sunni Baluchis and a porous border with Pakistan.
In late July 2015, the third phase of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict between various Kurdish insurgent groups and the Turkish government erupted, following a failed two and a half year-long peace process aimed at resolving the long-running conflict.
2016–present clashes in West Iran refers to the ongoing military clashes between Kurdish insurgent party Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which began in April 2016. Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) and Komalah expressed their support to the Kurdish cause of PDKI as well, with both clashing with Iranian security forces in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In parallel, a leftist Iranian Kurdish rebel group PJAK resumed military activities against Iran in 2016, following a long period of stalemate.
The Battle of Kirkuk took place in the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq between Iraqi Kurdistan and allies and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The battle occurred less than a week after the beginning of the Battle of Mosul launched by Iraqi security forces and allies.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, as well as its allied insurgent groups, both Kurdish and non-Kurdish, who have either demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or attempted to secure autonomy, and/or greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey.
Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)