ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian Kurdish opposition group said on Tuesday that four of its fighters were killed in clashes with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province, threatening to retaliate.
The East Kurdistan Defense Units (YRK), the armed wing of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), said in a statement that four of its fighters “resisted until the very last drop of their blood and were heroically martyred” during a clash with the IRGC in the suburbs of Mahabad in the Kurdish region of western Iran (Rojhelat).
The YRK also said “the IRGC forces suffered casualties… and sustained damages.”
The IRGC and the YRK have engaged in sporadic clashes across Baneh, Paveh, and Mahabad - where the Kurdish group maintains mobile forces - since Saturday. Both sides have sustained casualties, with the IRGC confirming the killing of two senior Basij militia members on Monday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the IRGC claimed it killed six members in the "ambush" in Mahabad while seizing the bodies of four, alongside weapons.
The PJAK joined a coalition of Kurdish opposition groups in late February, a week before the United States and Israel launched a military campaign against Iran, sparking a regional conflict that lasted nearly six weeks. The Kurdish umbrella group has called for greater Kurdish rights.
Iran has long labeled the groups “terrorists” and “Kurdish separatists.” Its fears were exacerbated during the war, as it believed the groups would incite and stage an armed rebellion in the Kurdish regions.
“We have not taken the side of any power, nor have we launched any attacks against the Iranian regime,” the YRK said in Tuesday’s statement, adding that it refrained from any attack “even during Iran’s weakest conditions.”
The group also said that Iranian forces have nonetheless “significantly increased their attacks,” adding they are “taking advantage of this current situation” to target Kurdish fighters with “cowardly attacks.”
The US and Israel launched a major aerial campaign against Iran in late February. Tehran carried out attacks on Iranian Kurdish armed groups based in the Kurdistan Region during its response to the war.
Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-June to extend the ceasefire they had agreed to earlier in April. Despite fluctuating tensions, Tehran and Washington have not engaged in widescale confrontations since the truce.
Iran’s attacks on Kurdish groups in the Kurdistan Region continue despite the deal with the US.
