The “Zagros Eagles carried out an operation” against the IRGC in West Azerbaijan province, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) tweeted. “IRGC commander Osman Hosseini was killed in the operation.”
The Zagros Eagles said Hosseini was killed on Friday.
The commander’s base issued a statement vowing it would revenge his death “at the right time and place,” IRNA reported.
According to the KDPI, Hosseini was responsible for the death of one of their Peshmerga, Rahim Gargoli, who was killed in clashes with the IRGC in 2017.
The KDPI is a Kurdish armed opposition party that has waged an on-and-off armed war against the Iranian government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It is based in the Kurdistan Region. Iran occasionally shells the area on the pretense of targeting the group.
The Zagros Eagles are an armed opposition group who appear to be affiliated with KDPI, though the party denies the connection. “Our party does not have any relation with the Zagros Eagles, however we do disseminate some of their activities against the Islamic Regime in Iran,” KDPI’s Loghman Ahmedi told the Norwegian Landinfo in a report published in 2017.
Kurdish opposition groups in recent years have used front groups to do their bidding inside Iran to avoid antagonizing the Kurdistan Region authorities. A number of the Iranian Kurdish parties including the KDPI have transferred their bases from populated areas of the Kurdistan Region to the border with Iran.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which has cordial relations with Tehran, has called on armed Iranian Kurdish opposition groups not to launch attacks against neighboring countries and Iranian security forces from Kurdistan Region territory.
