Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed to have killed five Kurdish militants in northwest Iran. A Kurdish opposition group stated six of its fighters died in clashes with the Guards near the Iraqi border on Wednesday night.
The clashes highlight the ongoing conflict between Iran and Kurdish militant groups, underscoring regional instability and Tehran's efforts to counter perceived separatist threats.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Thursday that five members of the banned Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) were killed in the country's northwest. The IRGC stated the group was ambushed after entering Iranian territory in mountainous border areas near Piranshahr in West Azerbaijan province.
The Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw reported that clashes took place on Wednesday evening near the village of Qazqapan, three kilometers from Piranshahr. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) confirmed the deaths of six of its fighters in the incident.
The PDKI, which is based in Iraqi Kurdistan, has been involved in decades of intermittent conflict with the Islamic Republic, and Tehran views Kurdish armed groups as separatist threats. This incident occurs amid ongoing tensions between Iran and Kurdish militant groups.
Separately, state media reported on Tuesday that the Revolutionary Guards killed six members of what they described as an "opposition and separatist group" in a similar incident near Piranshahr. On the same day, state media also reported that two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed and two wounded in a shooting in Kermanshah province on Monday evening. Hengaw reported that a newly formed Kurdish armed group claimed responsibility for the Kermanshah attack, stating it was in retaliation for the IRGC’s role in suppressing a 2022-2023 protest movement.