AFP: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards continued their offensive against rebels from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), killing an unknown number of fighters, the Guards ground forces said Tuesday.
TEHRAN, July 26, 2011 (AFP) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards continued their offensive against rebels from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), killing an unknown number of fighters, the Guards ground forces said Tuesday.
“Last night (Monday), several PJAK teams … were ensnared and eliminated” near the towns of Piranshahr and Sardasht in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province, the elite force said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.
“PJAK terrorists fled the scene after suffering heavy losses, and the corpses of the slain mercenaries were left in the area,” it added.
It did not specify the number of casualties.
On July 16, Iranian troops launched a major offensive against PJAK bases, losing at least eight Guards members, including a senior officer, in clashes with the Kurdish rebels on the border with neighbouring Iraq.
According to PJAK, the movement had suffered two casualties before Monday’s clashes.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday the fighting has displaced hundreds of villagers in the border regions of northern Iraq.
PJAK rebels operate out of bases in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, and have been involved in deadly clashes with Iran for years.
Iranian forces, in return, have repeatedly shelled border districts of their neighbour’s Kurdish region, targeting PJAK bases.
