Iran's Revolutionary Guards say they killed Kurdish militants in northwest Iran

DUBAI, July 2 - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had killed five members of the banned Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in the country’s northwest, state media reported on Thursday, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Kurdish militant groups.

The Guards said the group was ambushed after entering Iranian territory in mountainous border areas near Piranshahr in West Azerbaijan province, without specifying when the operation took place.

According to the Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw, the clashes took place on Wednesday evening.

The PDKI has been involved in decades of intermittent conflict with the Islamic Republic, and Kurdish armed groups in Iran have long been viewed by Tehran as separatist threats.

During the recent conflict with Tehran, U.S. and Israeli expectations that Kurdish fighters could play a ground role against Iran quickly faltered amid mixed signals from Washington and Israel, while Iranian threats and strikes against Kurdish positions in Iraq deterred the groups from entering the war.

A similar incident near Piranshahr was reported by state media on Tuesday, with the Revolutionary Guards saying they had killed six members of what they described as an "opposition and separatist group".

On the same day, state media also reported that two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed and two wounded in a shooting in Kermanshah province in western Iran that occurred on Monday evening.

The attack was claimed by a newly formed Kurdish armed group seeking retaliation for the Guards’ role in suppressing a 2022 to 2023 protest movement, according to Hengaw. REUTERS