In the spring of 1980, government forces under the command of President Abolhassan Banisadr brutally conquered most of the Kurdish cities through a huge military campaign, sending in mechanized military divisions to Kurdish cities including Sanandaj, Pawe, and Marivan [REF].
The confrontation between Tehran and the Kurds intensified sharply when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, as Iran faced Iraqi support to the Kurdish insurgency in Iran, while waging its own campaign to encourage risings of various groups within Iraq [REF].