Member link probably will not work, but here's the text in it's entiretyA commander of Iranian Kurdish rebel group Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) confirmed to STRATFOR on June 16 that Iran has deployed a large number of troops to its northwestern border triangle where the Turkish, Iraqi and Iranian borders meet. The source estimates that "thousands" of Iranian forces have been deployed, with the number of troops having increased on a daily basis over the past 10 days. Iranian forces can be spotted in the Kurdish villages of Xnra, Tapai Kurdina and Bardu Naz, where they have set up an outpost on the Iraqi side of the border. The Iranian forces are reportedly armed with heavy weapons and have helicopter support.
Iran has increased its military presence in this region many times before in cracking down on Kurdish militants, but this latest deployment, which appears to be larger than usual, is notable for two reasons. First, Iran has made clear through private channels that, following the U.S.-led push for new U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran, it would find a way to improve its negotiating position relative to the United States, with Iraq as its focus of operations. Second, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander publicly attributed the deployment to an alleged U.S. and Israeli military presence in the region as opposed to a response to the Kurdish militant threat. According to sources in the region, U.S. forces were seen recently in the Kurdish border villages doing limited reconstruction work. There have also been allegations that a small number of Israeli special forces are operating in the area to collect intelligence on Iran.
This particular border juncture has long been an active region for a number of players in the area. Farther south along the border, in what appeared to be an Iranian-provoked incident, Iranian troops and Iraqi border guards got into a gunfight May 13, raising speculation that Iran was making a show of force in Iraq similar to its brief military occupation of an Iraqi oil well in southern Maysan province in December 2009.
(Rational Actor Bias)
Iran may have the intent of escalating border tensions with Iraq to capture the attention of the United States through this latest deployment
(Rational Actor Bias),
but it remains unclear how far the Iranians intend to go.