ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Monday announced that they had seized a “large amount” of American weapons allegedly smuggled into the country, by striking “anti-revolutionary terrorist groups based in northern Iraq” that transported them.

The groups, “acting on behalf of the United States and the Zionist regime… were struck in Baneh, Kurdistan Province, and large quantities of weapons and ammunition were discovered and seized,” the IRGC said, in a statement carried by affiliated media.

“Intelligence follow-ups to identify and arrest all internal traitorous elements of the terrorist groups are underway,” it added.

Photos published by IRGC-affiliated media, purportedly showing the confiscated weapons, include a multitude of different weapons, notably several Kalashnikovs — a famously Russian-made rifle.

US President Donald Trump said in early April that Washington had delivered arms to Iranian protesters through the Kurds, but the Kurds had “kept” the weapons.

The American president has not specified what group of “Kurds” he was referring to, but the claim has been collectively denied by Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.

The Kurdistan Region’s ruling parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have also denied the accusation separately.

Trump doubled down on his remarks last week, saying that he is “very disappointed” with the Kurds for allegedly keeping the weapons US had sent to Iranian protesters, noting that the Kurds “take, take, take,” despite Kurdish parties having rejected the accusations.

In early March, Kurdish Iranian opposition groups were accused of launching ground incursions into Iran from the country’s western border to join the conflict against Tehran; reports they similarly strongly denied.

Iranian Kurdish dissidents, many of whom are based in the Kurdistan Region, have long been targets for Tehran, with strikes growing particularly more frequent and intense after the US-Israeli war on Iran began. Despite a ceasefire in place to halt the regional conflict, Iran still carries out strikes on the opposition groups in the Kurdistan Region.