3 IRGC members killed in twin attacks as Iran intensifies Kurdish crackdown

Two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were shot dead near the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan region in the northwest, while another IRGC member and his wife were killed in a separate attack in southeastern Iran, state media and rights groups reported Tuesday. Iranian security and military forces have stepped up their crackdown on Kurdish groups that authorities accuse of being backed by the United States and Israel.

What happened: The IRGC’s public relations office in Iran’s western Kermanshah province said in a statement on Tuesday that armed men on motorcycles approached the residence of a local IRGC member in the border town of Paveh on Monday evening and fired shots at the front door.

Gunfire erupted, killing two IRGC members, identified as Borhan Karisani and Khaled Khaledi.

Two other IRGC members were injured. Hengaw — a Norway-based human rights organization that reports on news related to Iranian Kurdish activists — identified them as Kamel Hajiji and Kamal Abdi. Hajiji is in a coma.

The IRGC statement described the attack as a “terrorist act” and said the incident is under investigation by relevant authorities.

Another attack against IRGC members occurred in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan on Monday evening. According to Hengaw, gunmen opened fire on the car of Amirhossein Arbabi, an IRGC member, as he was leaving IRGC headquarters in the city of Saravan, killing him and his wife, Fatemeh Bamaripour.

Iranian state television, however, said a man and his daughter were killed in the attack, which it said was carried out by “Zionist-American mercenaries.”  

No group has claimed responsibility for the Saravan attack as of yet.

Later on Tuesday, a newly formed group named Khori Hiva (Sun of Hope) claimed responsibility for the attack in Paveh. The group’s statement, cited by Hengaw, accused Khaledi of being involved in the violent crackdown against the nationwide protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini while she was in custody in September 2022.

In its statement, which also announced its establishment, Khori Hiva said its main goal was to “promote political awareness, strengthen Kurdish national identity, and confront the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

According to Iranian media citing the statement, Khori Hiva — which is based in the Iranian Kurdistan region in the northwest — will also work to document cases of human rights violations and what it described as “crimes by the Islamic Republic and its affiliated forces.”

Kurds are one of Iran’s largest ethnic minorities, making up around 10% of the country’s population of 93.2 million, according to the Minority Rights Group.

The Kurdish population is mainly concentrated in the northwest, along the borders with northern Iraq and southwest Turkey, and has long faced systematic discrimination and repression at the hands of the Iranian government.  

Why it matters: Iranian authorities frequently accuse Kurdish groups of carrying out violent acts against security and IRGC forces in the northwest, allegedly with the backing of the US and Israel.  

On Tuesday, the IRGC’s official Sepah news outlet said that a unit from the guards dismantled a six-member team working for “anti-government and separatist groups” that had entered Iran from the northwestern border to carry out “sabotage and terrorist acts” in the country.

The operation took place in the mountains between the cities of Mahabad and Piranshahr, during which IRGC forces killed members of the cell and seized various weapons and equipment.

The latest security incidents come amid a series of armed clashes between security forces and Kurdish groups in border areas in recent weeks. Last Friday, two Iranian military personnel were killed and five others wounded after “armed anti-revolutionary individuals” fired at a checkpoint in the border city of Baneh in the Kurdistan province, according to Tasnim.

On May 30, Iran’s counterterrorism forces conducted a raid on a hideout of a separatist organization in the city of Kermanshah, killing two people, whom state media identified as “terrorists.”

In late April, the IRGC said it dismantled “Kurdish separatist groups” and “counterrevolutionary” cells in the Kurdistan region that planned to launch a military attack from the country’s western borders.

The IRGC accused these groups of being supported by the US and Israel.

Know more: The crackdown against alleged Kurdish separatists has escalated following the US-Israel-Iran war that erupted on Feb. 28. Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17 to end hostilities on all fronts, putting a stop to the war.

On Monday, Mohammad Akbarzadeh, the political deputy of the IRGC Navy, died in a vehicle accident in the southeastern province of Kerman.

According to Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency, which is linked to the IRGC, Akbarzadeh died as a result of injuries he sustained after his car overturned on a road in the province as he was returning from the city of Yazd.

Authorities launched an investigation into the cause and circumstances of the accident.

Akbarzadeh also acted as spokesperson of the IRGC’s Navy, making regular statements about the Strait of Hormuz during the war. He repeatedly boasted about the Navy’s preparedness to respond to any attacks.

On June 8, the European Union imposed sanctions on Akbarzadeh over his alleged support for Iranian measures that restricted freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.