At least three members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed this week in separate armed attacks, one near Iran's border with Iraqi Kurdistan, as authorities intensify a crackdown on Kurdish groups, according to Al-Monitor.
In the western Kermanshah province, the IRGC's public relations office said armed men on motorcycles opened fire on the home of a local IRGC member in the border town of Paveh on Monday evening, killing two guards identified as Borhan Karisani and Khaled Khaledi, per Al-Monitor. Two others were wounded; the Norway-based rights group Hengaw identified them as Kamel Hajiji, reported to be in a coma, and Kamal Abdi, Al-Monitor reported.
A separate attack struck Iran's southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province, where gunmen fired on the car of IRGC member Amirhossein Arbabi as he left guard headquarters in Saravan, killing him and his wife, Fatemeh Bamaripour, Hengaw told Al-Monitor. State television described the victims only as a man and his daughter, blaming "Zionist-American mercenaries."
A newly formed group calling itself Khori Hiva (Sun of Hope) claimed responsibility for the Paveh attack, accusing Khaledi of involvement in the deadly crackdown on protests that followed Mahsa Amini's 2022 death in custody, according to Al-Monitor's account of the group's statement, cited via Hengaw. The group said it aims to bolster Kurdish national identity and document rights abuses by Iranian forces.
Kurds make up roughly 10% of Iran's population of 93.2 million and have long faced repression, Al-Monitor noted, citing the Minority Rights Group. Iranian authorities routinely accuse Kurdish factions of acting with US and Israeli backing. Separately, the IRGC's Sepah outlet said guards had dismantled a six-member "sabotage" cell entering from the northwestern border, killing its members near Mahabad and Piranshahr, Al-Monitor reported.
The violence follows weeks of clashes in Kurdish border areas, including a checkpoint attack near Baneh that killed two soldiers and a raid in Kermanshah that killed two alleged "terrorists" in May, per Al-Monitor. The crackdown has escalated since the US-Israel-Iran war that began Feb. 28, even after Iran and the US signed a June 17 memorandum ending hostilities, the outlet said.
Separately, Al-Monitor reported that Mohammad Akbarzadeh, political deputy of the IRGC Navy and a former Navy spokesperson sanctioned by the EU in June over Strait of Hormuz restrictions, died Monday in a car accident in Kerman province; an investigation is underway.
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