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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran says 17 rebels killed in restive province |
| 2007-03-01 |
| TEHERAN - Iranian security forces killed 17 rebels in the latest clashes in West Azarbaijan province close to the Turkish and Iraqi borders in northwest Iran, a Revolutionary Guards commander said on Thursday. “Seventeen rebels who entered Iran to carry out sabotage work have been killed,” Colonel Jalil Babazadeh of the elite force told the IRNA news agency. Four members of the Guards were also killed in the clashes, including one commander, two lieutenants and a rank-and-file member, the commander said, without specifying when the fighting took place. West Azarbaijan province has been the scene of a string of deadly clashes in recent days between Iranian security forces and rebels linked to the Kurdish separatist group Pejak. Guards chief Yayha Rahim Safavi said on Wednesday around 30 rebels had been killed by security forces in the clashes, which have coincided with an upsurge of unrest in the Sistan-Baluchestan province in the southeast of Iran. The authorities have repeatedly accused the United States and Britain of seeking to stir unrest amongst ethnic minorities in sensitive areas close to the Turkish, Iraqi and Pakistani borders. Fourteen Iranian military personnel were killed in a helicopter crash last week during an operation against rebels in West Azarbaijan province that the authorities said was an accident due to bad weather. Pejak, a group linked to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claimed shooting down the helicopter and killing 20 soldiers and senior officers. Safavi on Wednesday warned that the Revolutionary Guards reserved the right to pursue Kurdish rebels inside Iraq’s frontiers if Baghdad failed to expel them from border zones. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 "Round up 17 men and shoot them." |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-03-01 12:43 |