PDKI Peshmerga kill, wound 27 Iranian Guard Corps fighters

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Peshmerga fighters of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) killed nine and injured 18 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps in a clash on Friday near an Iran-Iraq border town.

According to a statement by the Central Command of the PDKI’s Peshmerga, the fighting took place in Siakew Mountain in the Shno region, an Iranian city that borders the Kurdistan Region to the west.

PDKI is one of the many Iranian Kurdish entities, which Tehran views as a threat for its opposition to the government and its policies.

The armed forces of the Iranian Kurdish parties are unrelated to the Kurdistan Region’s legal body with the same name (Peshmerga). However, members of their fighters participated in the battles against the Islamic State in Iraq.

The PDKI statement also mentions that the Kurdish fighters did not sustain any casualties during the clash.

Iran continuously carries out assassination plots against members of the PDKI while they reside in the Kurdistan Region, killing three in March alone.

Founded in 1945 by iconic Kurdish leader and President of the short-lived Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad, Qazi Muhammad, the PDKI, a secular and social democratic party, has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy and rights in Iran for decades.

The PDKI reignited a conflict with the Islamic Republic in June 2016, 20 years after laying down their weapons in 1996 to prevent jeopardizing Kurdish gains made in northern Iraq.

On Tuesday, an armed exchange between unidentified Kurdish fighters and Iranian Border Guards left two dead in Sardasht, a predominantly Kurdish city which lies to the south of Shno.

The Iranian government is also engaged in a crackdown against unarmed Kurdish Iranian couriers (Kulbars) who carry goods between the Kurdistan Region and Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat), killing and wounding at least six last week.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany