A file photo of Iran’s IRGC forces in a parade. Source: PressTV
11 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in a clash with militants in western Iran on July 21, official IRNA news agency reported.
According to IRNA, militants attacked a military checkpoint in the village of Dari, near the city of Marivan in Kurdistan province. This area is located close to the Irainan border with Iraq.
Erupted clashes also triggered a blast at a nearby weapons depot.
According to initial reports, 10 IRGC members were killed in these developments. However, later the number grew to 11. Additionally, 8 IRGC members were reportedly injured.
The most of the casualties were a result of the weapons depot blast.
Iran’s Hamza Sayyid al-Shohada Headquarters claimed that “a number of terrorists were killed and several others fled with injuries”. However, inability of the Iranian side to provide preceise numbers shows that the number of killed “terrorists” is not so high.
Hamza Sayyid al-Shohada Headquarters described the attackers as “terrorist and counter-revolutionary groups” thathave no “base among the Iranian nation”.
Most likely, the attack was carried out by Kurdish militants, members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPIK), which has rear bases in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.
This is the second clash between the IRGC and alleged mebmers of the DPIK in western Iraq in July which became widely known. On July 14, the IRGC stated that its members had eliminated 3 members of a “counter-revolutionary terrorist group” in the Nowdesheh area of the province of Kermanshah.
