Tehran, April 05: Iranian Border Guard Commander Brigadier General Hossein Zolfaghari says clashes have broken out between Iranian armed forces and terrorists in western Iran over the past days.
Four Iranian troops were killed and another five wounded in one of the clashes near the border city of Marivan in the northwestern province of Kuristan on Friday night.
Brig. Gen. Zolfaghari said evidence on the ground lays the blame on PJAK terrorist group.
“Clashes erupted after PJAK terrorists attempted to take our border guards post. The clashes lasted 45 minutes, during which a number of our colleagues were killed and injured. Four PJAK terrorists were also killed and wounded, and left behind one of their weapons,” he told Press TV.
Meanwhile, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Ground Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said the IRGC forces have managed to arrest and kill two militants involved in earlier terrorist attacks which also took place in western Iran on March 24.
PJAK is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — internationally recognized as a terrorist group — and conducts deadly operations in western Iran, northern Iraq and southern Turkey.
PKK launches attacks against Turkish government forces from Iraq’s Qandil Mountains in areas under the control of Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, while PJAK militants mainly engage in armed attacks with Iranian security forces along the country’s border with neighboring Iraq.
Israel and Israeli firms are also known to operate in the northern Iraqi mountain range and are believed to have close links to the terrorists.
——–Agencies