Kurdish rebels resume attacks in Western Iran

A group of Kurdish terrorists have killed a 32-year-old Iranian security official in clashes in the northwestern city of Salmas.

Security officials in the West Azarbaijan province reported Friday that members of the terrorist PJAK (the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) confronted Khosrow Parvardeh in front of his home and shot him dead.

"They shot him more than 10 times, and then they fled the scene," said a local police official on conditions of anonymity.

Iran's western borders often witness deadly clashes between Iranian armed forces and the outlawed PJAK, which is considered to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK is recognized as a terrorist group by a number of countries and organizations including Turkey, Iran, Iraq, the US and European Union and the United Nations.

With the main goal of establishing an independent Kurdish state, PJAK has been staging cross-border attacks in Iran since 2004.

An April 10, 2006 report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that US troops were establishing contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups in Iran such as the PJAK rebels.

Later in November 2006 Hersh wrote that, "Israel and the United States have also been working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan. The group has been conducting clandestine cross-border forays into Iran."

According to Hersh, Israel has been providing the Kurdish group with "equipment and training." The group has also been given "a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the US."