Iran Pounds Rebels in Second Day of Northwestern Border Clashes, State Media Reports
The attack comes a day after three Iranian border guards were killed by 'counter-revolutionary terrorist groups,' Iranian state media reports
Iranian forces launched an artillery barrage on armed rebels in a northwestern border area on Saturday, a day after three Iranian border guards were killed in the remote region where the borders of Iran, Iraq and Turkey meet, Iranian state media reported.
The Revolutionary Guards said its ground forces targeted positions of "counter-revolutionary terrorist groups on the other side of the northwestern borders of our country", inflicting heavy losses and casualties, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported.
Clashes with Iranian Kurdish militant groups are common in the area and Iran occasionally shells northern Iraq, where it says rebel fighters take shelter.
In May, unknown gunmen killed three Iranian border guards in a Kurdish area near the country's western border with Iraq, Iran's state media reported.
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The official IRNA news agency said the three were killed in clashes with “bandits” while patrolling near the town of Sardasht, located about 530 kilometers (330 miles) west of Tehran.
It said several of the attackers were also killed during the clash but did not elaborate further.