By Xinhua,
Tehran : Iranian security forces have killed at least 12 militants in the northwestern city of Piranshahr near the Iraqi border, Iran’s English-language Press TV satellite channel reported on Thursday.
Four Iranian border guards were killed in the clash that took place after some 40 insurgents infiltrated into Iranian territory from the Iraqi border, the report quoted Colonel Shahnam Rezaei, head of the West Azerbaijan’s provincial police information center, as saying.
Dozens of the militants and another Iranian border guard were also wounded in the fighting, Rezaei said, adding that the militants had planned to carry out terrorist activities in the country.
West Azerbaijan province has been the scene of regular armed clashes between Iranian security forces and Kurdish militant parties, in particular the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK),an anti-Iranian Kurdish group linked to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
On Thursday, Turkish land forces Commander Ilker Basbug said that his country and Iran were sharing intelligence against Kurdish insurgents based in northern Iraq.
The CNN Turk news channel quoted Basbug as saying that Turkey and Iran had also carried out coordinated strikes against the insurgents.