Iran says 12 Kurdish fighters killed in clashes

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday announced the killing of 12 Kurdish fighters in the western Kermanshan Province.

Kirmashan officially known as Kermanshah is a Kurdish province near the border with Iraq.

Citing the IRGC General Mohammed Pakpour, official news outlets including Tasnim and Fars agencies said Iranian soldiers also seized weapons of the group of “anti-revolutionaries.”

The Iranian media which published gruesome photographs and videos purportedly showing killed Kurdish fighters did not specify their political affiliation.

Moreover, there was no confirmation of any clashes or casualties by any Kurdish faction in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) as the time of publishing this report.

Several armed Kurdish groups have been fighting the Islamic regime in Iran for decades for wider cultural and political rights.

These groups include the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the more leftist Komala, and the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). PJAK is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The semi-official Press TV quoted Pakpour as claiming that “the terrorists were operating under the protection of the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the Zionist [Isreali] regime to create insecurity in the Islamic homeland.”

Pakpour added that three of the IRGC soldiers were wounded in the clashes.

Emboldened by Kurdish gains against the Islamic State (IS) in the two disintegrating states of Iraq and Syria, the PDKI re-launched an armed campaign against Iran in June 2016 after 20 years of ceasefire.

This year’s clashes have seen scores dead on both sides mainly in mountainous areas near the cities of Mahabad, Piranshar, and Sanandaj (Sine) as the PDKI declared to have killed at least 10 Iranian soldiers in late September.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany