ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian border guard was killed early Friday in an armed clash with an unidentified opposition group near the Kurdish city of Paveh in western Iran (Rojhelat) bordering Halabja in the Kurdistan Region.
Kermanshah province border commander Brigadier General Kiasat Sepehri said Sergeant First Class Reza Daraei Emarati was killed after border guards encountered the group while patrolling the frontier in the early hours of Friday.
“The border guards were carrying out a mission to monitor and protect the border strip when they became engaged with an anti-revolutionary group,” Sepehri was quoted saying by Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.
Iranian authorities routinely use the terms “anti-revolutionary” or “hostile groups” to describe Kurdish opposition parties and other armed groups operating along the country’s western borders.
Sepehri claimed the border guards repelled the attack and prevented members of the group from entering Iranian territory. He did not identify the group involved or say whether it suffered any casualties.
The Kurdish areas in western Iran have seen several clashes between Kurdish opposition groups and Iranian forces in recent months as pressure has mounted on Iran from the US and Israel.
Around a half a dozen Kurdish individuals believed to be working with the government have been killed by cells affiliated with Kurdish opposition groups.
Paveh, a predominantly Kurdish city in Kermanshah province, lies close to the border with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The mountainous frontier has for decades been the scene of intermittent clashes between Iranian forces and Kurdish opposition groups.
The incident comes a day after Brigadier General Ali Jahanshahi said the Army Ground Force units have been deployed throughout Iran’s borders in order to protect the “independence, security and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran and are fully prepared to confront any threat, aggression and land invasion,” according to IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency.
Protecting the borders is one of the basic and permanent missions of the Army Ground Force, the commander said.
The Kurdish areas have been a restive place for the central government in the past five decades and are seen through security lense by the government in Tehran.
In late August, another soldier by the name of Mehrdad Taheri Arpanahi, was killed during clashes with opposition groups in Paveh.
