'About 30 Iranian soldiers killed in border clash with PJAK militants'

'About 30 Iranian soldiers killed in border clash with PJAK militants'

2011-07-18 13:40:17 GMT+7 (ICT)

BAGHDAD / TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- Some 30 Iranian soldiers are believed to have been killed during fierce clashes with PJAK militants on the Iraqi border on Saturday and Sunday, Iraqi media reported on Monday.

The clashes began on Saturday evening and continued until Sunday morning near the Banjaween area of Iraqi Kurdistan's Suleimaniyah province. Few details were released about the Iranian raid on one of PJAK's headquarters.

According to the Aswat al-Iraq news agency, citing a source in the Iraqi military, the border clash left at least 30 Iranian soldiers killed. The number could not be independently confirmed, but PJAK had earlier also claimed that a large number of Iranian soldiers had been killed.

"Heavy clashes took place on Sunday morning on the Iraqi borders with Iran, in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region, killing about 30 Iranian soldiers and an unknown number of PJAK forces, which oppose the Tehran regime," the military source told the Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Iranian state-run media admitted only one death on Iran's side.

Iran regularly shells areas in Iraq to target the PJAK, which is fighting to establish semiautonomous regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran, Turkey and Syria. The group has been accused of carrying out a number of attacks in those countries.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-07-18