AFP: Five rebels and two members of the Revolutionary Guards have been killed in clashes in Iran’s Kordestan province near the Iraqi border, government newspaper Iran reported on Thursday.
TEHRAN (AFP) — Five rebels and two members of the Revolutionary Guards have been killed in clashes in Iran’s Kordestan province near the Iraqi border, government newspaper Iran reported on Thursday.
“During clashes in Kordestan’s border area five counter-revolutionaries and two guards were killed,” the report said, without elaborating on the insurgents’ links or when the incident took place.
Rebels of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) have been fighting security forces in northwestern Iran which has a significant Kurdish population.
PJAK is closely allied with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which operates in Turkey and is listed as a “terrorist” group by Ankara and much of the international community.
Iranian forces regularly bombard the border with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan, where PJAK has bases, with the latest shelling reported on Monday.
In May, Iran hanged four Kurds, including a woman, for alleged ties with the group.
