ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Monday that its forces clashed with a “counter revolutionary” group in northwestern Iran near the Turkish border, asserting that opposition groups receive assistance from “outside Iran’s borders,” in order to sabotage the country at a time when it is on high alert as US-Iran tensions continue to rise.
“On Sunday evening, a terrorist counter-revolutionary team dependent on world arrogance intended to enter the borders of our country were caught in a trap of the soldiers of Hamza Sayyid al-Shuhada's command in the Chaldoran area in western Azerbaijan,” a statement from Hamza Sayyid al-Shuhada’s Base read on Sepah News.
Graphic: Rudaw / Ahmed Bahram
In the clashes that ensued, one opposition fighter was killed, two were wounded and a fourth was captured, the statement added. The IRGC confirmed that two of its guards suffered minor wounds in the clashes. No claim of Kurdish responsibility have been made.
A missile attack by the Guard last September on the headquarters of an Iranian-Kurdish party based in Iraqi Kurdistan, which killed at least 16 fighters and civilians, has been followed by a lull in clashes between Kurdish groups and the IRGC.
However, Kurdish sources have reported that there have been at least four clashes in recent weeks in the Kurdish areas in western Iran.
The IRGC, on its part, confirmed another clash with Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) fighters in Chaldoran, killing one guard.
Several Iranian Kurdish armed opposition groups with hundreds of fighters are based in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.
Established in 2004, PJAK are affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a leftwing guerrilla movement which fights for great political and cultural rights for Kurds. Along with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), they have been involved in numerous clashes with the IRGC in recent years.
Unlike the rest of Iran, overseen by the Iranian national army, Kurdish areas in the west of Iran fall under IRGC charge. The Guard enforces strict measures to prevent armed Kurdish groups from entering the country, including constructing a network of roads and building more outposts in the mountainous Kurdish regions.
Iranian officials, anxious about rising tensions with US since the latter’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, are concerned about links between the Kurdish groups and Trump administration.
The KDPI and Komala, another Kurdish party, met with State Department officials last year to push for more pressure on the Iranian government by the US administration.
Iran has repeatedly complained to the Kurdistan Regional Government that it should not allow its territory to be used by Kurdish groups to attack Iran.
