PDKI clashes with Iran, kills a soldier

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - A Kurdish-Iranian party on Tuesday announced it carried out a successful military operation in Iran, killing a member of Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guards.

The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the country's most senior Kurdish party said it clashed with Iranian guards in Shno (Oshnavieh), northwest of the country.

According to PDKI, on Monday night local time, the urban PDKI Peshmerga Units confronted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran, also known as Sepah in Farsi, outside of the villages of Balaqir and Derbend.

The group claims Fatah Mamel, who during a previous operation had emptied several magazines into the body of a fallen Peshmerga platoon leader Kamal Xezri, was killed in the latest clashes.

Iran has not released a statement about the Shno clashes yet.

After a two-decade-ceasefire, the PDKI last year resumed armed struggle against Iran in a movement named "Rasan."

Mustafa Hijri, their leader, previously told Kurdistan 24 that the clashes are in self-defense and never an assault on Iranian guards.

Iran, however, maintains that any "opposition activity" is illegal, and indiscriminately shoots “trespassers” and destroys buildings which are suspected Peshmerga safe houses.

The PDKI and IRGC both label each other terrorist organizations. None has been internationally recognized as such, but the United States has recently been debating listing IRGC as an extremist group.

Editing by G.H. Renaud