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TEHRAN, Sept 3 (AFP) - Clashes in western Iran
with Kurdish rebels have left 120 Iranian police
dead and a further 64 injured in less than six
months, a provincial judiciary chief was quoted as
saying Saturday.
"Since the beginning of the year 1384 (beginning
March 20, 2005), 120 police have been martyred and
64 injured fighting the Pejak, PKK, Kurdish
Democratic Party and Komoleh," Hojatoleslam Akbar
Feyz, the head of Western Azebaijan province
judiciary, told the student news agency ISNA.
In recent months Iranian news reports have spoken of
regular attacks by Iranian Kurdish rebel groups,
notably the Pejak -- a group which Iranian
authorities say is linked to the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) and other outlawed Kurdish parties that
are active across the border in Turkey and northern
Iraq.
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.
The latest death toll from the violence is far
higher than previous reports, which suggested around
a dozen police have died in clashes with rebels over
recent months.
Feyz told ISNA that over the past month, 190 people
from the province's various Kurdish dominated towns
and cities were arrested, out of which just nine are
still behind bars.
Provincial judges have also been armed "to protect
themselves from death threats" issued by Kurdish
rebel groups, he added.
Several major clashes were reported in July around
Iran's northwestern city of Mahabad, an historic
centre of Kurdish nationalism.
Still a Kurdish-majority town, Mahabad is situated
just south of Lake Urumiyeh, near Iran's border with
Turkey and around 55 kilometres (35 miles) from the
frontier with the autonomous Kurdish region of
northern Iraq.
AFP
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