ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior commander of a Kurdish opposition party was killed in clashes with Iranian forces in Iran’s western Kurdistan province on Thursday.
The skirmish with Iranian border guards began when members of the leftist Komala Party were ambushed while attempting to enter the country, according to Iranian reports. Iran’s Kurdistan province shares a mountainous border with the Kurdistan Region.
A prominent Komala member was killed during the fighting. In a statement sent to Rudaw, the party identified the deceased as Rebwar Karimian, head of the party’s military commission.
Karimian was born in 1980, in Mariwan's Darseran village. He is married and has been with Komala since 2001, according to biographical information shared by the party.
Border guards found large amounts of explosives and “advanced American weapons” on Karimian’s body, border guard chief Ahmad Ali Goudarzis told Mehr news, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He added that one border guard and a few other Komala members were injured.
The fighting took place approximately 10 kilometers southwest of the town of Mariwan, in the villages of Askol and Sianaw, close to the Kurdistan Region border, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which said that the IRGC shelled the area.
A Komala leadership member, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to Rudaw that there were clashes and said that Iran has carried out heavy bombardment of the area between Mariwan and Penjwen, the Kurdistan Region’s border town.
Hengaw reported that the IRGC had prevented fire fighting teams from the environmentalist Chya Green Organization from accessing the area to extinguish flames sparked by the clash.
Komala is one of several Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties with bases in the Kurdistan Region. Tehran describes these groups as “terrorists” and has frequently carried out cross-border air and ground operations claiming to be targeting the groups.
In a pact signed with Iran in March last year, Baghdad agreed to disarm the opposition groups and secure the border regions. Iran had threatened to resort to military action should Baghdad fail to fulfill the agreement.
Under the terms of the security deal, Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties are being relocated into camps. Komala, said in a statement earlier this month that they have not been provided with a copy of the Iran-Iraq agreement, but that they oppose the forced evacuation of their bases, which it claims only contain civilians. The party called for assistance from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), asking it to draw a red line in front of Iran’s demands and Iraq’s pressure.
A number of residents from Komala bases were moved to Surdash camp in Sulaimani province’s Dukan district earlier this month. Rudaw has learned that Sulaimani’s authorities informed Komala that they should empty their bases.
Iran has repeatedly accused the KRG of harboring opposition groups it considers threats to its national security. The KRG has rejected Tehran's accusations.
When Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Erbil last week, Kurdistan Region authorities assured him that they would not allow the Region to be used as a base to threaten neighboring countries.
Nasser Piroti contributed to this report.
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