Iran's Revolutionary Guards kill five Kurdish rebels

TEHRAN: Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have killed five Kurdish rebels near the country's northwestern border with Iraq, an official statement said Monday.



"A team of five from the PJAK terrorist splinter group... has been identified and destroyed in the Sardasht region" on the Iraqi border, a Guards statement said on its official website.

It said the group was responsible for the death of three members of Iran's Basij militia more than a month ago.

No further details were provided about the operation.

The last reported clashes between Kurdish rebels and the Revolutionary Guards were in September, when two rebels and two Iranian soldiers were killed.



PJAK -- the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan -- is an Iranian Kurdish party with close links to the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Kurdish rebels periodically attack Iranian armed forces near the border with Iraq's Kurdish region.