ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran border guards said on Saturday that their forces killed two members of an opposition group during an attempted attack on one of its border posts near Turkey, at a time Tehran is expected to sign a deal with Washington to end hostilities or extend the ceasefire.
Iran’s Border Police commander said “elements of opposition groups attempted to attack a border unit in Chaldoran but were detected and prevented from carrying out their plan,” according to Tasnim News Agency.
He said border guards identified the group before it crossed into Iranian territory and opened fire, killing two members. Others were wounded and retreated toward the Turkish border, he added.
Tasnim did not name the armed group involved, but Kurdish opposition groups are active in border areas with Turkey and Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack by Kurdish opposition groups.
The attack comes as Tehran seeks to cement its security pact with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region to prevent Kurdish opposition groups from operating in the Kurdistan Region.
An Iraqi and Kurdistan Region delegation is expected to visit Tehran soon to discuss the security situation in the Kurdistan Region in relation to Kurdish opposition groups. Tehran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at these groups since February 28, when the US and Israel began an extensive aerial campaign that lasted six weeks before the warring parties agreed to a ceasefire on April 8.
Iraq’s National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji and the Kurdistan Region’s Interior Minister Reber Ahmed will head the delegation, according to Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Mohammad Kazem Al-e Sadeq.
“Our emphasis is that the Baghdad government, together with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, must fully implement this security memorandum and hand over or expel the separatist terrorist groups based in the Kurdistan Region, and fulfill its commitment in this regard,” Al-e Sadeq told ISNA news agency.
Kurdish areas in western Iran saw some of the heaviest bombardment during the six-week aerial campaign by the US and Israel. Kurdish opposition groups were poised to enter Iran and confront the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other security forces in the early stages of the war before US President Donald Trump paused the operation.
Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region have long been a thorn in the side of the Islamic Republic since 1979, and Tehran has repeatedly portrayed the Kurds as agents of foreign states seeking to destabilise Iran.
Thousands of people have been arrested since the January protests and during the six-week war, with authorities claiming they were agents of the US and Israel. The authorities have executed over 30 political prisoners including protesters accused of armed rebellion and spying for Israel and the US.
Tasnim released footage on Saturday of a security raid on a location in Kermanshah province, during which two Kurdish brothers involved in the January protests in Kermanshah city were killed. The Hengaw Human Rights Organisation identified them as Mojtaba and Meysam Waisi, two cultural activists and followers of the Yarsan faith. Authorities said they were allegedly involved in armed clashes with security forces in the Daraderezh neighbourhood of Kermanshah in January.
The Kurdish opposition group Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) released a statement on Saturday claiming that the two brothers were members of the party.
There have been several security incidents over the past week in Arab and Baluchi regions of the country, targeting members of the security forces and the IRGC’s Basij militia.
In the Arab region of Khuzestan province, Captain Abdul Hussain Mojaddami, a senior Basij official, was shot dead outside his home in Darkhoveyn late Tuesday. Fars News Agency reported that he was attacked by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles who opened fire before fleeing. It said he had previously served in Syria with IRGC-linked units and maintained ties with senior commanders.
In Sistan and Baluchestan province, police said Second Lieutenant Issa Abbasi was killed in an ambush while traveling to his duty station in Iranshahr on Thursday evening. Authorities said gunmen opened fire on his vehicle and later launched a search operation.
Human rights organisations have warned that if the regime stays in power following the war with the US, there could be a new wave of executions across the country as a way of intimidating the public, including in ethnic minority areas such as Kurdish regions.