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Thursday 16 October 2008

AFP: Four Kurdish rebels killed in Iran: report

TEHRAN (AFP) — Four Kurdish rebels have been killed in clashes with members of the Islamist volunteer Basij militia in a village in Kordestan province in western Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

The clashes took place Tuesday evening between Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) rebels and Basij volunteers in Tijtij village near the town of Marivan, IRNA said.
Iranian forces have in recent years engaged in a series of deadly clashes with PJAK which operate from rear-bases in northeastern Iraq.

The rebel group has close links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Iran has in recent years seen an upsurge in unrest in several regions with ethnic minority populations, including Baluchestan in the southeast, Arab-populated Khuzestan in the southwest, as well as Kurdish-inhabited areas.

Iranian officials have accused Britain and the United States of being behind the increase in violence.

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