Iranian Terrorist Group Received US Training and Arms – Report

The US-led coalition has trained and supplied with arms and ammunition the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), which seeks to create an independent Kurdish republic inside Iran and is blamed for many deadly terrorist attacks inside the country.

In this photo, posted on Facebook on August 31, 2016, Hussein Yazdanpanah, leader of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), shakes hands with an unidentified individual, purported to be a Western military advisor (Photo: AP)

Members of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), which seeks to create an independent Kurdish republic inside Iran and is blamed for many deadly terrorist attacks inside the country, was trained by US advisers and received arms and ammunition from both the US, and European states, the AP news agency reported on Thursday, citing commander of the PAK, Hussein Yazdanpanah.

“They helped and trained us within the framework of the fight against Daesh [also known as the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group],” Yazdanpanah said.

At the same time, the commander noted that the alleged fight against the IS “have never been an alternative to their struggle” against Iran. Yazdanpanah stressed that the PAK, which had launched six attacks inside Iran this year alone, would continue to strike the country.

The Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces have clashed with separatist Kurdish militants after they moved to Iranian west from neighboring Iraq.

Spokesman for the US-led coalition that has allegedly been fighting the IS in Iraq and Syria since 2014, Capt. Giulio Macari, said that the coalition did not choose the groups that it was training. However, the PAK’s commander claimed that there is “no doubt” that the trainers knew who members of the group were.

Yazdanpanah also noted that American advisers had provided three rounds of the training for PAK’s militants between March and September 2015. The training was held at the front-line in the Iraqi central province of Kirkuk. Later, the group went through further rounds of the training alongside other Iraqi Kurdish fighters. The training included “infantry tactics, weapons handling, and bomb disposal.”