Kurdish fighters attacked Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) troops near the Iran-Iraq border that resulted in the deaths of Iranian troops. On Wednesday, Kurdish fighters engaged in an offensive against the IRGC troops in the villages of Hamran, Myouni, and Sartaja just outside the border town of Sardasht.
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According to ARA News, “this led the Iranian forces to [deploy] additional military reinforcements to the region in a bid to face the unexpected fierce offensive.” Rudaw News cited witnesses in the three villages who reported heavy fighting as helicopters circled overhead and “at least 15 ambulances were seen rushing into areas where security forces were deployed.”
Iranian state run media remained quiet on the the fighting in the region but did manage to report that funerals were held for two IRGC members who were killed in “clashes” in Sardasht without detailing exactly how they died. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) tweeted on Wednesday that more than 10 IRGC troops had died in Sardasht and that Iran deployed helicopters in an attempt to aid “a large group of [R]evolutionary [G]uards that [were] suffering heavy losses.” The PDKI also stated that the IRGC troops were shelling Kurdish positions in the Myouni mountains.
The PDKI—a left-wing Kurdish nationalist group formed in 1945 announced on February 26 that it was restarting its “armed resistance against the Islamic Republic of Iran” and claimed an attack against a Basij base in the village of Majid Khan. The group waged a deadly insurgency against Iranian authorities from 1989 to 1996, after which it maintained a peaceful policy until it purportedly engaged Iranian troops in the fall of 2015.
Joining the PDKI, the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) announced Friday that it too will resume its armed operations in Iran. Hussein Yazdanpana, commander of the PAK’s armed wing said,
“Iran is at the doorstep of a wide-scale armed uprising … that will include all of its cities.”
As the Iranian Kurds issue the IRGC troop losses, how much longer will Iranian state ran media remain silent on it? Sound off in the comments below.
