Members of the Kurdish rebel group Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) killed a commander and five senior forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in north-western Iran, the IRGC said Friday in a statement.
An IRGC vehicle with the six IRGC forces, including General Abbas Asemi who was a high-ranking IRGC commander, was hit by a landmine planted by the PJAK near Sardasht, a city near the Iraqi border.
The statement, carried by Fars news agency, did not say when the incident took place.
Iranian forces and the separatist group PJAK have been involved in renewed clashes in the last ten days and the Iranian forces have also crossed over into Iraq in pursuit of the rebels. According to local reports, there have been casualties so far on both sides. Iranian Kurds, estimated to number around 7 million, mainly live in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah and Kurdistan which border Turkey and northern Iraq.
A minority of Kurds in Iran have been at odds with the government in Tehran for decades, seeking autonomy in Kurdish-populated provinces and aiming for an alliance with Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
Kurds are Sunni Muslims, while the majority of the Iranian population are Shiites. Sunnis make up about 10 per cent of Iran's population.
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