16 people arrested after three IRGC members killed in Kurdistan
A day after three members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in Iranian Kurdistan, the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Intelligence announced the arrest of 16 people. The identities of the detainees are not clear. The Ministry of Intelligence claimed that they were affiliated with “separatist” groups.
The Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Intelligence announced in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, May 6, the arrest of 16 people in Kurdish-populated areas in western Iran. The Ministry of Intelligence claimed that the detainees were affiliated with “separatist” groups. It also claimed that a number of weapons and ammunition were seized during the arrests.
The Ministry of Intelligence statement said that the detainees entered the country from a "neighboring region" and are affiliated with a group based in Europe and supported by an "Arab country" in the region.
Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran 40 years ago, the western region of Iran has been a hotbed of Kurdish armed groups and a scene of conflict between these groups and the Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Iranian government describes the Kurdish armed groups as “separatists” and supported by some Arab countries in the region.
These arrests come a day after Iranian media reported the killing of three members of the Revolutionary Guard in the same areas of western Iran.
One of the dead was a senior IRGC commander in the Kurdistan province. The IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency identified him as “Corporal Colonel Shakiba Salimi,” who was the IRGC’s commander in Jerusalem and deputy head of operations for the provincial headquarters in Kurdistan.
The news agency identified two other people as “Jafar Nizampour” and “Mohammad Shukri” who were killed in the clash. Fars also reported that “a number of counter-revolutionary elements” were also killed in the clash. The clash took place in the general area of Divandareh, near the Iraqi border.
Source: DW
