ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iranian security forces attacked the outlawed Kurdish PJAK group in northwestern Iran, killing several guerrillas and losing one Revolutionary Guard, local media reports said.
Bahman Rahimi, Revolutionary Guards commander in Iran’s Kermanshah province, said his troops had attacked PJAK positions in Jwanro, northwest of the country, “killing a number of” guerrillas.
Rahimi also said one Revolutionary Guard was killed in subsequent clashes but gave no details about the exact number of guerrilla casualties. PJAK is the Iranian wing of Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The escalation of violence in Iran’s volatile western borders comes after PJAK claimed it had killed 20 Iranian soldiers in an attack on a military outpost in the city of Mariwan earlier last month, a claim denied by Iranian authorities at the time.
“Our forces have cleared the area of the anti-revolutionary elements in these regions,” Rahimi was quoted by local media on Monday.
Local sources said at least one female guerrilla was killed in the clashes.
