Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said one of its members was "martyred" during intense clashes with Kurdish fighters near the border with Iraq early on May 4. The IRGC claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the infiltrating militants but did not release casualty figures.
The clashes took place in the mountainous area of Dara Nakhi, near the Kurdish town of Mariwan close to the Iraqi border. The IRGC identified the Kurdish attackers as "armed gangs" and "counter-revolutionary elements," monikers Iranian authorities routinely apply to Kurdish groups struggling for autonomy. Most of those fighters are based in a rugged mountainous range stretched on the long Iran-Iraq border.
