ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The armed wing of the Kurdish opposition group Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on Iranian forces in Iran's Kurdish-majority western regions (Rojhelat), saying it was carried out in retaliation for the killing of three members of one family last week.
The East Kurdistan Defense Units (YRK), PJAK's armed wing, which calls its fighters the "Defenders of Kurdistan," said its forces targeted an Iranian military position near the village of Sianav, on the outskirts of Marivan, in Rojhelat's Kurdistan province, on Sunday.
"This operation was carried out in revenge for the massacre of the Tavakoli family in the city of Baneh by the Islamic Republic," the statement read, referring to an area near Marivan where the family was killed by Iranian forces.
Mehdi Tavakoli, a prominent Kurdish photographer and cultural activist, was killed alongside his sister Somayyeh Tavakoli, a psychologist, and their mother Maryam Aslani, after Iranian security forces opened fire on their vehicle on the Baneh-Marivan road on July 26.
The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said forces from Tehran's intelligence ministry directly fired on the family's vehicle, killing all three immediately.
Meanwhile, the Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights attributed the shooting to the Islamic Republic Guard Corps' (IRGC) intelligence organization.
"We, as the Defenders of Kurdistan, declare that we will not leave such actions by the Islamic Republic unanswered, and no attack against the values of the Kurdish people will go without a response," the YRK vowed.
For its part, Iran's army offered a different casualty toll, saying that one soldier, identified as Abolfazl Goudarzi, was killed and another wounded when its 328th Brigade base near Marivan came under attack at around 3 am local time on Sunday.
The army said the assailants used two explosive drones and rocket-propelled grenades.
Iranian state media, however, claimed that the vehicle's occupants were armed PJAK members killed during a confrontation. Both rights organizations rejected that account and identified the three as civilians.
Tavakoli managed the Kurdistan Photographers’ House and founded the Chaw Art House. He was also a former political prisoner and had previously been sentenced to two years in prison on national security charges.
The family was reportedly pressured by Iranian security authorities to publicly describe the deaths as the result of a road accident and warned that funeral ceremonies would be prohibited if they challenged the official narrative.
PJAK was established in the Qandil Mountains on April 4, 2003, by around 250 members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who originally came from the Kurdish region in Iran.
Units of Kurdish opposition groups, including PJAK, based in the Kurdistan Region, had clashed with Iranian security forces in recent weeks in the west of the country, with both sides sustaining casualties.
Several individuals in the Kurdish areas have been killed in recent years after being labelled as collaborators by Kurdish opposition groups, with no group officially claiming responsibility.
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