At least 10 Iranian border guards killed near Kurdistan Region

 ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – At least 10 Iranian border guards have been killed in a nighttime operation by gunmen in mountainous terrain near the Kurdistan Region, according to Iranian state media and a Kurdish rebel group claiming responsibility for the attack.

The incident took place on Friday night, targeting a guard post at the Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada base in the village of Dari, according to the Tasnim news agency. Dari is located outside the Kurdish town of Marivan (Mariwan), some 620 kilometers (350 miles) west of Tehran.

The report also mentioned that, during the clashes, several attackers were killed and others wounded but offered no further details. It described them as “bandits and counterrevolutionary terrorists.” 

Although the area has been witnessing a spike in attacks by Kurdish opposition fighters, this is the largest number of Iranian troops killed in a single action along the border with the Kurdistan Region in recent years.

Following the attack, in an online statement, the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) claimed responsibility for the attack, stating they had killed and injured 15 of the border guards.

PJAK, founded in 2004 as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has waged an intermittent armed struggle against the Iranian government for the Kurdish rights in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat). It is most commonly described as the military wing of the PKK in Iran.

The statement said the attack was in response to the recent killing of four of its fighters in Mariwan and Paveh in Iran, as well as the assassination of Iranian Kurdish activist Iqbal Muradi in the Kurdistan Region's Penjwen on Wednesday

Editing by John J. Catherine