Iranian troops kill senior Kurd rebel -reports

Reuters: A senior member of the Kurdish rebel group that is being pursued by the Iranian military on the border with Iraq has been killed, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.

TEHRAN, Sept 7 (Reuters) – A senior member of the Kurdish rebel group that is being pursued by the Iranian military on the border with Iraq has been killed, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.

“Majid Kawyan, deputy head commander of PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), was killed on Saturday,” IRNA said, quoting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps which is conducting the military operation. He died of shrapnel wounds, it said.

Kurdish Firat News Agency quoted a PJAK statement saying Kawyan, also known as Simko Serhildan, joined PJAK — an offshoot of Turkey’s separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — in 1999. He died while commanding rebels in the Qotaman mountain area, it said.

The Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they had rejected a PJAK ceasefire offer. It said on Saturday it had killed 30 PJAK fighters and wounded 40 in several days of fighting. . (Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Istanbul; Reporting by Mitra Amiri; Editing by Matthew Jones)