Several villagers living near Kusalan Mountain in Sarvabad, Kurdistan province, spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had bombed the area and deployed troops on 12 June.

According to these civilians, in the morning, IRGC forces shelled part of Mount Kusalan near the village of Razab. Later at noon, an IRGC military convoy and several bulldozers were deployed in the area.

The villagers said: ” After the Kusalan heights were bombed, a number of Revolutionary Guards were stationed at the IRGC garrison in Kusalan and some others were sent to the area to build roads and be present at the strategic heights known as Hawari Rasaban.”

The sources added that they heard several explosions in the areas at 22:00 local time, but it was not yet clear whether there had been clashes in the area or whether the IRGC had shelled the areas around the region where its forces were located.

Last week, the IRGC deployed troops around Mount Shaho in the towns of Ravansar, Paveh and Sarvabad in Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces and shelled the mountain with drones.

The Shaho and Kusalan protected regions, covering 57,236 hectares, are located between the towns of Sarvabad, Ravansar, Paveh, Marivan and Kamyaran, on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan.

In 2009, these mountainous areas were designated as protected areas under the management of the Ministry of Environment by Resolution No. 303 of the Supreme Environmental Council (Government Infrastructure Commission).

Since 2007, the IRGC has built several military bases in the Shaho and Kusalan protected areas under the pretext of countering the presence of Kurdish opposition forces.

Despite objections from environmentalists, much of the pastureland and forest in these areas has been destroyed in the construction of military bases and the roads leading to them.

The IRGC has also deliberately burned the pastures and forests around the military bases in what it calls an act to “prevent the Kurdish opposition parties from using the vegetation cover for attacks”.