Iran claims killing, injuring 30 Kurdish rebels

Iran claims killing, injuring 30 Kurdish rebels

2011-09-05 04:34:29 GMT+7 (ICT)

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- Iranian authorities on Sunday said that at least 30 members of the separatist Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) have been killed or injured in northwestern Iran over the past two days, state-run media reported.

Colonel Hamid Ahmadi was cited as saying by Iran's Press TV that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) launched a series of operations against the militants on Friday afternoon. "The operations to clear the country's northwestern area of the members of [the] PJAK terrorist group will continue with strength," he said.

Ahmadi added that the IRGC launched the operations after the PJAK refused to clear its forces out of Iran's northwestern areas and killed two local Iranian civilians. He said that PJAK members are positioned on the northwestern border areas of "Jasusan" and "Qandil".

Iran regularly carries out operations against 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.

The IRGC has recently deployed 5,000 military forces in the northwest of the country along its common border with Iraq's Kurdistan, which is often shelled by Iranian forces, forcing hundreds of families to flee the region.

On Saturday, an Iraqi civilian was killed when an Iranian sniper opened fire along the border line near the town of Haj Omran in northern Iraq's Kurdistan. The victim was said to be a shepherd, and Iran gave no explanation why it opened fire.

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