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Four Iran troops killed fighting PKK-linked group:
official
9.8.2005
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TEHRAN, Aug 8 (AFP)
- 17h29 - Four Iranian soldiers were killed in
fighting close to the Turkish border, an official
said Monday, blaming the incident on a group linked
to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
"On Sunday evening, four soldiers were martyred when
their post in the border area of Jermibetkar was
attacked," said Abbas Khorshidi, the deputy governor
of Western Azarbaijan province.
"There is probability that the armed group is Pejak,"
the Party for a Free Life in Iranian Kurdistan,
Khorshidi told AFP, adding it was not known if any
of the rebels had been killed.
The deputy governor strongly denied reports Pejak
forces were in the provincial capital of Orumiyeh
and other parts of Western Azarbaijan, insisting the
area was "calm".
About two weeks ago, Khorshidi blamed Pejak for the
deaths of six people including four Iranian soldiers
killed near the northwestern town of Oshnoviyeh,
also close to Turkey.
Pejak, a relatively unknown group believed to have
links to Turkey's outlawed PKK, had appeared in
northern Iranian areas with strong Kurdish
communities, Khorshidi said.
Branded a terrorist organization by the United
States and the European Union, the PKK has fought
Ankara since 1984 and recently stepped up violence
in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast after calling
off a five-year unilateral ceasefire in June last
year.
Tehran and Ankara are linked by an accord calling on
Iran to fight the PKK and for Turkey to fight the
People's Mujahedeen, an armed Iranian opposition
group based in Iraq.
Iran's population is 90 percent Shiite, whereas
Kurds are mainly Sunni Muslims and make up about
seven percent of the Islamic republic's population.
AFP
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