In July, Iran launched a major offensive against PJAK rebels, shelling districts near Iraq's border for weeks, but halted it during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to give the rebels a chance to withdraw from border areas.

The Iranian bombardment of Iraqi Kurdistan’s border areas had continued since more than 2 months, killing and injuring many Iraqi Kurdish civilians and causing damage for dozens of houses and agricultural fields.

The Guards resumed the offensive on Friday, with their operations officer Colonel Hamid Ahmadi saying the fighting would "continue until all counter-revolutionaries,www.ekurd.netrebels and terrorists have been cleared away."

According to the Guards, so far more than 30 PJAK rebels have been killed and 40 wounded in the second wave of attacks, while Iran has suffered two casualties.

On Monday, PJAK declared a truce and called on Iran to reciprocate in order to prevent further bloodshed.

Iran responded a day later, saying Iraq's Kurdish autonomous government, which is acting as a mediator, must clarify the details of the truce before making a decision.

"Since the content of the unilateral ceasefire announced by the PJAK terrorist group is not clear-cut, the government of the autonomous (Iraqi) Kurdistan region which mediated this act should clarify the intention of the ceasefire as soon as possible," the Guards said.

PJAK rebels have engaged in numerous clashes with Iranian forces in recent years, drawing retaliatory bombing of their rear-bases in mountainous border districts of Iraqi Kurdistan.

In mid-August, Turkey began its own campaign of shelling and air raids against bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Kurdistan, which has ties with the PJAK.

Tehran has accused neighbouring Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region of creating a safe haven for rebels, and has rejected criticism from Baghdad that Iran should stop the border shelling.

On Tuesday, the president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, called on Kurdish fighters to relinquish their armed rebellion, and instead seek their goals through diplomacy.

"We are in a difficult situation because there are two countries (Iran and Turkey) telling us to control our borders so there will be no problems," Barzani said in Erbil.

But "we are afraid to send forces to the borders for fear of a Kurdish-Kurdish war," he said.

"I call on the two sides to stop the idea of getting their rights through military means."

Human Rights Watch meanwhile has criticised Iran over its military operation, saying it had evidence its forces may have deliberately targeted civilians.

Kurdish local officials and an NGO in early August reported that more than 200 Iraqi Kurdish families had been forced from their homes by weeks of Iranian shelling of separatist rebel bases in northern Iraq.

It also accused Turkey of failing to take adequate precautions to protect civilians in its campaign of shelling and air raids against suspected bases of PKK rebels in northern Iraq.

The PJAK, or the (Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistane), is a militant Kurdish nationalist group based in Kurdistan region in Iraq's north that has been carrying out attacks Iranian forces in the Kurdistan Province of Iran (Eastern Kurdistan) and other Kurdish-inhabited areas.

Since 2004 the PJAK took up arms for self-rule in Kurdistan province northwestern of Iran (Iranian Kurdistan). Half the members of PJAK are women. The PJAK has about 3,000 armed militiamen.

Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey all have significant ethnic Kurdish minorities. Estimate to 12 million Kurds live in Iran.