The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on 29 April that it had dismantled a counter-revolutionary armed group in Kurdistan province in northwestern Iran, according to Fars news agency.

All members of the group have been identified and arrested, Fars news agency reported, quoting an IRGC statement.

The statement described members of the armed group, led from abroad, as seeking to spread anti-Islam propaganda and run a campaign of misinformation against Iran.

The purpose of the campaign, as outlined in the statement, would be to overshadow international Quds day, which is celebrated every year on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

The counter-revolutionary group, affiliated with the armed organization Komala, has a history of terrorism and assassinations, including “inciting gatherings, seeking to provoke clashes and riots, documenting protests, spreading fake news and insulting religious symbols,” the statement said.

Officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran have repeatedly called on the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Region to crack down on Kurdish armed groups in the country.

In September last year, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and the chief of staff of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic called on Iraqi authorities to deal with groups opposed to the Islamic Republic.

Komala, a banned Kurdish group since the 1979 Islamic revolution, has frequently clashed with security forces in northwest Iran.

As a show of solidarity on Quds Day, millions of Iranians marched in more than 900 locations across the nation, as well as in 90 countries across the globe, to demand an end to Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people.

The demonstrations were attended by dozens of Iranian government, parliamentary and military officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi; the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami; and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Iranian President Raisi described events in Palestine as “state terrorism, with systematic violation of human rights, the use of prohibited weapons against the people,” saying that none of these contribute to security.

In 1979, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, designated the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as World Quds Day, and every year, Muslims express their support for the oppressed Palestinian nation and condemn the expansionist policies of Israel.