ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Three members of Iran's border guards were killed and two others injured in a clash with an armed group near the Kurdish-majority city of Urmia on Friday, state and IRGC-affiliated news outlets have reported.
The clash between the guards and “counter-revolutionary elements” – a term often used to describe Kurdish armed opposition groups – took place in the district of Targavar, West Azerbaijan province at 1:50 pm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported, citing local police.
Sergeant Moslem Jahanara, Sergeant Malek Taher and soldier Kamran Keramat were killed and two other members of the guard were wounded, Tasnim said, adding that the guards have since deployed more forces to the area.
Brigadier General Yahya Hussein Ghani, commander of border guards in West Azerbaijan told state-run IRNA that "counter-revolutionary armed fighters clashed with the border forces brigade in Urmia's Tagavar in West Azerbaijan province Friday afternoon."
"The clashes led to the martyrdom of three members of the border guards... and the injury of two others," Ghani added.
Hengaw, a monitor of human rights abuses in Iran's Kurdish areas, said that the clash lasted for less than an hour, and took place between the guards and fighters of a Kurdish armed opposition group.
The monitor put the number of injured guard members at four. Sources told Hengaw that no Kurdish fighters were killed in the clash.
In recent years Iranian forces have taken increasingly proactive measures to smother clandestine Kurdish opposition groups by creating thousands of kilometers of new dirt roads atop mountain peaks overlooking Kurdish areas, and installing thousands of additional troops to seal off its porous western border with Iraq.
Iran's border guard chief announced in September that drones and sensors would be deployed to a 1,000 kilometre stretch of border with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, as part of a "smart" border defence plan to better seal the country's frontiers.
Correction: A previous version of this article reported that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members were killed in clashes, rather than border guards. Rudaw regrets the error.
Updated at 8:09 am on Saturday, November 14, 2020
