Claims by Iran's Army Deputy Commander Regarding Bombing ISIS Positions in 2014

Ahmadreza Pourdastan, the Deputy Commander of the Iranian Army, announced that the air force of this force bombed positions of the Islamic State group, ISIS, about 40 kilometers from the Iranian border in 2014, but this news was not disclosed at that time. ISIS militants advanced to within 41 kilometers of the Khosravi border and Iranian territory by capturing the cities of Jalawla and Saadiyah in Diyala province, Iraq, in June 2014. A few months later, Pourdastan, who was then the commander of the Iranian Army's ground forces, stated that the Islamic Republic warned this group that if they approached 40 kilometers from Iran's borders, they would face an attack from the armed forces of the Islamic Republic. On Thursday evening, September 21, he said in a television program that he himself had flown by helicopter into Iraqi territory and advanced 'close to Saadiyah and Jalawla.' According to this army commander, army commanders 'even down to the level of company and platoon commanders' entered this country in coordination with Iraq's border guards and defined a 40-kilometer zone that would be bombarded if Islamic State forces crossed it. He announced that the Iranian Air Force had also bombed some of the Islamic State's positions that were previously beyond this 40 kilometers, but this news was not published at that time. Following this event, several other officials of the Islamic Republic warned that a 'red line' of 40 kilometers for the group known as 'Islamic State' was set for all of Iran's borders, and if the forces of this group crossed this limit, they would be attacked. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on June 17 this year that in response to attacks by the Islamic State group on the Iranian parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, they attacked a base of this group in the Deir ez-Zor region of eastern Syria with medium-range surface-to-surface missiles. In the June 17 attacks in Tehran, 17 people were killed and over 50 were injured. After that, Iranian security and judicial officials announced that dozens had been arrested in the provinces of Alborz, West Azerbaijan, Fars, Kermanshah, and Kurdistan. In this context, on Saturday, July 24, after gunfire was heard at Mehrabad Airport, Mohsen Hamdani, the security deputy of Tehran's governor, announced that a 'counter-terrorism drill' had been held in Hall Four of this airport. Three days later, Iranian media reported the death of Mehdi Yazdi, an airport security officer, during this 'drill,' which was confirmed by the public relations office of the IRGC's protection command. The Islamic State group has recently threatened in a new video that it will carry out new attacks in Iran. In another part of his interview, the Deputy Commander of the Army stated that in 2009, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence had asked the Air Force to land the plane carrying Abdolmalek Rigi in Iran, and 17 aircraft and two refueling planes flew for this mission. He said that this plane ultimately landed after being shot at by Iranian aircraft in Bandar Abbas. Last year in Esfand, the statements of Hossein Najat, the deputy of the IRGC's intelligence organization, about the method of capturing Abdolmalek Rigi provoked a reaction from the Ministry of Intelligence. He had said that during the capture of Abdolmalek Rigi, an 'IRGC intelligence officer was sitting next to him.' After that, the Ministry of Intelligence of Iran announced that the operation to capture Abdolmalek Rigi was 'exclusively' carried out by this ministry. Iranian security officials had announced in 2009 that Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the militant group known as Jundallah, was traveling from Dubai to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, and he was captured by forcing the plane to land. The leader of the Jundallah group was ultimately executed in 2010, although later, Ali Younesi, the former Minister of Intelligence, assessed this action as 'hasty.' Iran considered the Jundallah militant group, which was involved in some bombings and kidnappings in the border province of Sistan and Baluchestan, as 'terrorist,' but this group claimed it was fighting for the rights of the Sunni minority in this province.