On Aug. 21, Kurdish social media activists published pictures that appear to depict elements of the Iranian 81st Armored Division entering Kurdistan via Khaneghein, north of Jalawla. The 81st is a battle-hardened division that fought hard during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. And before that, it had fought Kurdish insurgents in Iran’s restive northern provinces. Today the 81st Division is fighting alongside the Kurds.
After the Iran-Iraq War, the division reorganized and re-armed. As other units gained Russian T-72 tanks, the 81st gathered up all the leftover, American-made M-60s, M-48s and M-47s. More recently, the 81st broke into three largely independent brigades—the 181st and 281st Armored Brigades plus a mechanized brigade. The units the activists spotted in Kurdistan most likely are elements of the 181st, as it’s responsible for defending the Sar-e-Pole Zahab border town near Khaneghein. Previously, there had been a build-up of armored units on the Iranian side of the border.
Iranian army aviation stations Cobra attack helicopters in the vicinity of the 81st Armored Division. Iranian AH-1J Cobras are old by world standards, with outdated electronics and limited missile compatibility. But their crews possess a wealth of experience battling Kurdish separatists. They know how to fight fleet-footed insurgent troops.
Even during the war with Iraq, Iranian armored divisions were too outdated to risk a direct confrontation with more modern Iraqi forces. Iranian tanks instead functioned as mobile artillery, following behind the infantry. This likely would be their role in the war against Islamic State. The Kurds are a light infantry force with few vehicles of their own and almost no artillery. Even aged M-60s fill a gap in the Kurdish order of battle.
The Iranian M-60A1s that activists spotted in Khaneghein are vulnerable to the Islamists’ RPG-7 rockets, but if the tanks coordinate closely with Kurdish infantry, they could survive … and prove deadly against the terror group’s pickup trucks.
To be clear, we don’t know whether Tehran intends to directly support the Kurds. It just seems unlikely the tanks would risk combat on their own. And in any event, the armor deployment marks a major escalation of the fighting—and a big boost for Iran’s role in the campaign. 
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