IRGC ambush kills six Kurdish fighters in northwest Iran

Six fighters from a major Kurdish opposition group were killed in a clash with Iranian security forces in the country's northwest on Wednesday night, according to the group and Iranian state media, marking the latest in a series of violent incidents in Iran's Kurdish regions. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) stated that six of its Peshmerga fighters died in an ambush by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near the village of Qizqapan, close to the city of Piranshahr in West Azerbaijan Province. Iranian state media, citing the IRGC, reported that five members of the banned PDKI were killed after entering Iranian territory in mountainous border areas.

The PDKI's U.S. representative, Hejar Berenji, said the unit was on a political and organizational mission when it was ambushed by a large, heavily equipped IRGC force. He identified the six killed fighters by name. The clash occurred amid a broader wave of violence in western Iran. Just a day earlier, Iranian state media reported a similar incident near Piranshahr where the IRGC said it killed six members of an opposition group. Earlier in the week, on Monday evening, two IRGC members were killed and two...