MESOP FOCUS : Kurdish Salafies to fight ISIS alongside Iranian forces

16.06.2014 –  BasNews, Iran – Kurdish Iranian youths are among the Iranian Quds force that have been deployed to Kurdistan and Iraq and are based in Diyala and Baghdad provinces.

According to undisclosed sources, the men are Kurdish salafies and members of al-Qaeda in the Kurdish areas of Iran, including Bukan, Saqqez, Sanandaj, Kamran and Jawanround. They are allegedly preparing to join the Iranian forces that are now in Kurdistan to assist the Iraqi army against the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS).

The deployment comes after ISIS militants took control of a number of Sunni-majority cities in northern Iraq. BasNews has learned that Kurdish Salafies have been holding daily meetings in mosques across Iran’s Kurdish areas and talk to locals about the importance of going to Iraq for ‘Jihad’. Locals from Iranian Kurdistan have told BasNews that about 150 Kurds are among the Iranians who have crossed into Iraq. There have also been reports of more Kurdish Salafies joining the Iranian forces in Iraq shortly.