Despite deadly border clash, Iran-PKK war unlikely

Fazel Hawramy (Iraq Pulse)

Jun 2, 2017

Members of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), a militia affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), sit with an Arab tribal fighter (L) in a house in the village of Umm al-Dhiban, northern Iraq, April 30, 2016. They share little more than an enemy and struggle to communicate on the battlefield, but together two relatively obscure groups have opened up a new front against Islamic State militants in a remote corner of Iraq. The unlikely alliance between the Sinjar Resistance Units, an offshoot of a le — Members of the Sinjar Resistance Units, a militia affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party, sit with an Arab tribal fighter (L) in a house in the village of Umm al-Dhiban, Iraq, April 30, 2016. — REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

The May 27 clash near the Iran-Turkey border between Iranian border guards and what the Iranian media described as a "terrorist group" has raised fears that yet another dimension will be added to the conflict-ridden Middle East.

While some Iranian media identified the group as the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), a group affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Al-Monitor has learned from several sources close to the PKK and PJAK that the incident did not involve PJAK fighters but rather that PKK guerrillas — the archenemy of Turkey — were unwittingly embroiled in the incident.