ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) affiliate in Iran claimed Friday it had killed 20 Iranian soldiers in an attack on a military outpost in the city of Mariwan, a claim denied by Iranian authorities.
KODAR, the Free and Democratic Society of Eastern Kurdistan, said that its armed wing (YRK) had targeted the military outpost in the Kurdish town on Thursday, killing members of Iran’s Islamic Republic Guards Corp (IRGC).
A KODAR statement said that recent tensions had been triggered after Iranian forces launched sporadic attacks on the YRK, known as the Rojhelat Protection Unit.
“We previously announced that IRGC attacks on YRK guerrillas would lead to war. These assaults are tantamount to the breaking of the ceasefire by the Iranian regime,” the statement said.
Iranian officials in the country’s Kurdistan Province refuted KODAR’s claim of soldiers killed or injured, reporting only minor damage from the attack.
Meanwhile, Iran's outlawed Kurdish Komala party claimed late Friday that it had carried out the Marivan attack, saying the KODAR claim was false.
Last year, PKK’s offshoot organization in Iran, known as the Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), announced major shifts in its political agenda in Iranian Kurdistan.
It established KODAR and has been promoting it as a group not only for Iranian Kurds, but for all oppressed and marginalized populations in Iran.
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