ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian soldier was killed in Friday clashes close to the Iraqi border, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on Saturday, along with a number of "anti-revolutionaries" - a euphemism used for Kurdish opposition party members based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
A Guard border patrol "encountered and fought with an anti-revolutionary group in Sarvabad" in Kurdistan province, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported.
An unspecified number of the "anti-revolutionaries were killed and wounded, and a considerable amount of their weapons and ammunition was destroyed." One of the Guard was "wounded and died en route to hospital", the agency added.
The report did not disclose whether or not the combatants were from Kurdish opposition or jihadist groups, both of which have previously entered Iran from neighbouring Iraq. Jihadi groups have occasionally clashed with Iranian security forces in Kurdish areas in Iran.
Hangaw Human Rights Organization reported late on Friday that Kurdish forces and the IRGC “clashed in Zhone Resort located between Dagaga and Ravar [Kurdistan province] and a member of the IRGC, Saeed Hadi Ojaq, from [the city of] Qorveh was killed and two other injured.”
Parts of the Kurdistan Region bordering Iran are often bombarded by Iranian forces. The IRGC and Kurdish opposition forces have clashed in these mountainous areas, typically on the Iranian side, for decades.
Areas of responsibility of Hamza Sayyid al-Shuhada and Najaf IRGC Commands in the Kurdish areas in western Iran. Graphics: Maps4news, Sarkawt Mohammed/ Rudaw.
A spate of clashes have taken place across Iran's Kurdish areas in the last two months.
At least 10 IRGC members were killed in an attack claimed by the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) in the Kurdistan province town of Mariwan last week.
Unlike the rest of Iran, overseen by the Iranian national army, the provinces of Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan, where ethnic minority Kurds and Azeris predominate, are under the control of the IRGC’s Hamza Sayyid al-Shuhada command centre.
The Guard enforces strict measures to prevent armed Kurdish groups from entering the country, including constructing a network of roads and building more outposts in the mountainous Kurdish regions.
