PDKI Peshmerga kill Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander at border: Statement

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Peshmerga fighters of the Iranian Kurdish opposition group, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), on Sunday claimed to have killed a commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard following clashes on the border.

The incident took place on Saturday evening after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) engaged the Iranian Kurdish Peshmerga fighters near the city of Piranshahr, the PDKI said in a statement.

The Iranian forces targeted the PDKI Peshmerga’s positions in the mountains of Ziwa and Kona Lajan in Piranshahr, the Kurdish group said. 

It also mentioned that the Iranian fighters suffered casualties, but the IRGC only confirmed the death of one commander by the name of Mohammed Hashmi, a second lieutenant officer. A soldier by the name of Kasri Abdolalizadeh was also severely injured.

The Kurdish opposition group also revealed that one of its Peshmerga commanders, Saman Hassanpour, was killed during the attack.

Hassanpour was a college graduate, born in 1989 in the Kurdish city of Sardasht. He was arrested by Iran’s intelligence agency and imprisoned for seven months for raising the Kurdish flag in his hometown. 

He joined PDKI in 2016, according to the party.

On June 8, PDKI Peshmerga also announced they had killed nine and wounded 18 members of the IRGC in Oshanvieh’s (Shino) Siakew Mountain located near the border with the Kurdistan Region.

After more than a decade-long ceasefire, the Kurdish opposition group resumed its armed struggle against the Iranian government a few years ago. It is one of the exiled parties that seek to achieve Kurdish rights within a democratic and federal system in Iran.

Editing by Nadia Riva